


The Averruncus of Water

by Akari1221



Category: Mahou Sensei Negima!
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-05-09 05:24:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 24,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14709936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akari1221/pseuds/Akari1221
Summary: The Mage of Beginnings, the creator of the magical world and leader of Cosmo Entelechaia, has a new disciple, more than a disciple a being formed by magic and given life by her own blood, the Life maker has a daughter. Cosmo Entelechaia's newest and most powerful member has a very important assignment. The Averruncus of water is to infiltrate Mahora academy.





	1. Awakening

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! I've been a massive fan of Negima for years and I'm super excited to be writing this. I hope you guys are excited too cause this is going to be a long story. I plan for it to cover roughly the same timeframe as the original manga (not counting the time skips at the end) so strap in! I defineatly expect anyone reading this to have already read the Mahou Sensei Negima! and UQ Holder manga, but strictly speaking it's not a requirement to understand this story. While I do plan on covering all the major story arcs, do not expect everything that happened in Negima to happen here. This is an alternate timeline and some things will be vastly different. That being said, this is not meant to be a "better" version of Negima. I honestly believe Negima is one of the greatest manga ever written. If you don't believe me go read it, it's seriously awesome. I'm not in anyway claiming I can craft a better story than Ken Akamatsu, I just think this would be a cool alternative version of events. Well that's about it from me, feedback is always appreciated, and I hope you guys enjoy! More chapters coming soon!

The Averruncus opened her eyes in a cold dimly lit room. She knew instinctively she was in the Grave keeper's palace in the ruins of old Ostia. Her petite body was lying naked on a stone slab, engraved with magic circles and glyphs. She slowly began to acclimate herself, registering the sensation of stone against her skin and temperature in her body.

"Good morning." She turned her attention to the two figures stabding at her bedside. Both wore long dark robes with hoods covering their faces and were observing her intently. "How are you feeling?" the first figure said.

She sat up slowly, testing whether or not she'd been created with a sense of balance, fortunately she had. She stood up and took a moment to examine herself. She was small, probably only a few feet tall, as her two companions towered over her. She looked down. Her skin was pale, almost ghostly white. She had a pair of modest breasts, a slim waist, and a slight curve to her hips. She flexed her fingers and took a few experimental first steps.

"Everything seems to be functioning properly, Lifemaker-sama." The name came to her almost without thinking. There was no question; this was her master, the one who had created her and this entire world, the mage of the beginning.

"Incredible," said the other robed figure. "Despite such potent magical ability, she still retains such a high level of cognitive function. I daresay she could even pass for human."

"Fu, fu, fu. behold Dynamis, this is no mere construct or doll, she is my crowning achievement. The first unit of the Averruncus series. Shaped by ancient magics, and given life by my own blood, this is my daughter." They were talking about her. She knew what they were saying was true, she could feel it. She carried the blood of the creator within her, she was more than a mindless drone animated by magic. Magic She had a vast library of spells and knowledge installed into her brain, and she could sense she had incredible reserves of magical energy, with an affinity for water magic. She held out her hand, moisture in he air began to condense and collect in her palm. In a moment she was holding a orb of clear liquid. In it's reflection she saw her face for the first time. It appeared human, no horns or fangs of any kind. Her chalk white hair reached down to the base of her neck. Her starling blue eyes were framed by the bangs hanging over her forehead and along the sides of her face.

"Your magic pathways seem clear," said the Lifemaker observing her spell.

"Yes," she said dispelling the water. "There are no abnormalities."

"Excellent. Come let us assemble." Her master held out a hand and a magic circle appeared at her feet. She was bathed in violet light, and clothes began to materialize on her body; a simple uniform of orange sneakers, blue slacks, and a matching long sleeved shirt. She and Dynamis walked with their master through the palace of the grave keeper, until they reached the outer terrace and were greeted by a small army of Demi-humans. She looked into the crowd and saw cat folk, dryads, and even some dragon folk. Most were young girls like herself. She presumed they were war orphans from Hellas. Two girls stood apart from the crowd, one with blue green robes and long sea green hair that covered most of her face, and the other a short dark-skinned girl in a simple black dress and bright blond hair that reached her thighs. Averruncus recognized them instantly: the seventeenth Adad of water and the second Atur of fire. Just like her they were true disciples of the Lifemaker, created for the sole purpose of achieving their noble goal. No that was inaccurate. the entirety of Mundus Magicas owes their life to the creator, however there was a distinct separation in the group. Firstly there were about a dozen girls from Hellas orphaned by the war and rallied to their cause, the Adad and Atur stood before them, and finally Dynamis and herself stood at the left and right hand of the Lifemaker. The taller of the two girls bowed her head as they approached.

"Master, esteemed generals, I trust all is well?"

"Indeed" Dynamis replied.

"So this is the new girl?" The shorter one said with mild interest, as she walked up to the white haired girl. A moment later that interest completely evaporated and she occupied herself with whatever snack she was chewing on. The crowd whispered and murmured. They all either snuck glances and pretended not to look at the Averruncus, or blatantly stared at her. Doubtless they had herad rumors about her creation for weeks leading up to this moment. They were instantly silenced when the Lifemaker spoke.

"My loyal followers, my Cosmo Entelechaia" Her voice was that of a loving mother addressing her children. "We may have suffered losses in the years past, our ranks may be reduced and weakened, but make no mistake, this our day. We will succeed in guiding this world to the eternal garden. Though that very world may oppose us, never forget that this is the only path capable of saving all souls." The crowd erupted into applause. She dismissed the others and addressed, the Adad and Atur "Septendeciem Nii, you will command our forces. We do not have the numbers we once did, so we must make sure we are prepared when the battle comes."

"It shall be done," the taller girl said, bowing her head.

"As long as I get to burn something I'm satisfied." The blond said with a bored look on her face.

"Dynamis, you will see to Megalomesembria. They will be our biggest threat. Do not underestimate them."

"Understood." The general responded. This all made logical sense. The Hellas Empire or Adriadne Knights were not likely to get involved, even if they caught wind of their plans, and Megalomesembria was considered the world's greatest military power. Dynamis would be the perfect choice to cripple their forces before the coming battle. But that begged the question . . .

"What of me, master?" The mage of beginning turned to her newest disciple.

"You child, have the most important role of all. Of course we have secured this grave keeper's palace, however there is one more place of power we must bring under our control to execute our plan." Averruncus blinked. Obviously her master could not be mistaken, but the statement made no sense. _All_ the mana in Mundus Magicus flowed through this palace. It was the magical center of the whole world There was no  _other_ place of power. Her master seemed to read her expression exactly. "Do not be confused child. Our target is not in Mundus Magicus, but the old world. It's location is somewhat fortified, but it shouldn't pose much of a problem for you. A place called Mahora academy."


	2. Welcome to Mahora

"Good Morning everyone!" Negi Springfield said to his homeroom class.

"Good morning Sensei!" thirty one energetic middle school girls shouted back.

"How is everyone feeling today?" Immediately an elegant blond girl jumped out of her chair andeeted spread her arms dramatically.

"Sensei, any day I have the pleasure of being greeted by your gallant smiling face can only be filed with utter bliss! Why Sensei if I could only-Gluph!" She was interrupted by a textbook which seemed to fly across the room and strike the back of her head completely at random. "Ah who dares assault my love for Negi-sensei!" She shouted accusingly. A smile spread across her face as realization dawned on her. "Ah, I see. It could only be the untrained monkey over there who only knows how to act in a Zoo." This triggered and automatic response from a redheaded student with pig tails.

"Who are you calling a monkey, you shoutacon!?"

"What did you say baka!?" Soon the two girls were at each other's throats, pinching cheeks, and pulling hair, with many of their classmates cheering them on or placing bets. Their teacher clapped his hands to get they attention.

"Now, now, girls lets all settle down. I know this is a bit sudden, but a new transfer student will be joining us today." Everyone looked up. This was unusual. Mahora academy didn't break up classes. Most of these girls had been classmates since primary school, so getting a new classmate was quite rare. Negi turned to the door. "Please come in." The door opened, and in stepped the newest edition to Mahora academy's class 2-A

**X**

A mere two weeks ago she was being appointed as a disciple of the life maker, and now the Averruncus of water stood in a middle school in the old world before her thirty one new classmates. Not classmates, she told herself, _contacts_. She wasn't here to learn after all, she had a mission to complete. She looked out into the sea of bodies before her and saw a seemingly random collection of mismatched characters. Some were so tall and well endowed, they looked more like college students than middle shcoolers. Others were so small they could pass for elementary school children, and did that girl have antennae on her head? Most bizarre was the person standing next to her, who she presumed to be her teacher, and appeared no more than ten years old. She had no data pertaining to this situation. _Could it be, that students in the old world are instructed by children?_

"Good morning. I am Mero Averruncus. I will be in your care from now on." She said bowing her head. All the other girls inspected her curiously. She only wore the standard Mahora school uniform; a burgundy waistcoat and blazer over a white button down shirt, with a red tie, pleated skirt and knee high socks, but it stood out quite a bit against her pale skin and white hair. Her eyes stared straight ahead, her mouth a straight line that betrayed no emotion. The crowd erupted into a chorus of "oh"s and "ah"s followed by a barrage of questions.

"Wow!" one pink haired girl cried out. "What a beauty! Look at that white hair. Are you a foreigner?"

"What school did you go to before this?" Someone else asked.

"Where are you from?" and similar questions persisted. The teacher turned and spoke to her.

"My name is Negi Springfield. I will be your homeroom teacher starting from today."

"Negi . . . Springfield?" Her eyes widened ever so slightly, as she zeroed in on his last name. It couldn't be. Springfield was the name of the thousand master, the legendary mage who, with only a few allies ruined all her master's plans and crippled their organization. He was the one man in this world who was capable of matching her master in magical combat. Magister Magi Nagi Springfield, also known as the thousand master and "hero" of the magical world. Surely this stripling of a boy couldn't be related. She was staring. Intently. The room became deathly silent.

"Ummm," Negi began nervously. "Is there something on my face?"

"No." She said simply.

"Yes, well I've only just started teaching here myself, but if there's anything you don't understand, please don't hesitate to ask." He said with a smile.

"Yes. I will do that." She said before finally breaking eye contact, and moving to take and empty seat. There was a collective pause. And then . . .

"Wha-wha-wha-wha whaaaaaaaaaat!" Yukihiro Ayaka cried at the top of her lungs. "Negi Sensei what is the meaning of this?! What is your relationship with this girl?!"

"P-Please calm down, Inchou-san!" He said raising his arms in defense. "I only just met her too!"

"Oh I see!" She flipped around to face the transfer student. "So you mean to challenge me for Negi-Sensei's affections? Well this Yukihiro Ayaka will not lose! I- puth!" She was suddenly pushed aside by a gaggle of other girls.

"Hey, hey is it true? Do you actually have a crush on Negi-kun?" Saotome Haruna asked.

"A forbidden love between teacher and student? Sounds like a pretty big scoop!" Asakura Kasumi exclaimed brandishing her camera. Off to the side Miyazaki Nodoka blushed and fidgeted nervously.

"Wha- what should I do?"

"No, It's to early to give up Nodoka!" Ayase Yue assured her. "You have to be bold!"

"Negi . . . " Kagurazaka Asuna growled at him. "What have you gone and done this time?"

"Asuna-san I really didn't do anything!"

**X**

The rest of the day passed quickly. Once class ended Mero immediately left for the dorms. She had to contact her master. It was bad enough the headmaster of the academy happened to be Konoe Konoemon, the head of the Kantou magic association, and that one of the teachers here was the infamous Takamichi T. Takahata, who had spent the better part of the last decade hunting down the remnants of their organization, but now in addition to all that she had come face to face with a child bearing the name Springfield. These were the thoughts going through her head when a stranger's voice called her name.

"Uh, Mero-san is it?" She turned around and saw one of her classmates with long purple bangs covering her eyes. "Um hello. I'm-"

"Seat number 27, Miyazaki Nodoka." Mero interrupted.

"Uh, y-yes." Nodoka said, suprised the girl remembered hr name from the morning roll call. "Welcome to our Mahora academy! Do you have some free time now? I was thinking maybe since you're new I could show you around campus. This place is really big and it's easy to get lost."

"No. Thank you, but I am going to my dorm now."

"Um, w-wait a minute."

"Do you have some business with me?" she said impatiently.

"No, I-I just, I mean I" she stammered nervously.

"C'mon Nodoka, just ask already!" said a new voice as Saotome Haruna appeared beside her friend. "Just tell us already, do you liiiiike Negi-kun?" She said completely invading the transfer student's space.

"That's something I'd like to know too actually." said Ayase Yue as she approached from the other direction. "Sorry to be so blunt Mero-san, but as Nodoka's best friends we will support her love. Please give us a straight answer. Are you in a relationship with Negi-sensei?"

"No."

"No?"

"No." A moment passed, and slowly Nodoka's confusion turned to relief.

"Hmmm, really?" Haruna interjected. "How do you know him then? You have some kind of history together right?"

"No, nothing like that. Please don't worry about it."

"O-Okay" Nodoka said dumbfounded.

"Now please excuse me." The statement was almost automatic. A convenient way to end the conversation quickly. Before the other girls could retort she turned and walked away.

A few minutes later, Mero Averruncus walked into the room where she was expected to live for the next scholastic year. There was no one else there but based on the basketball T-shirts, posters, and other sports paraphernalia scattered around the room, she clearly had a roommate. She closed the door and sealed it shut with a quick spell. After confirming that she was alone one more time she dug into her schoolbag and took out a large scroll, bound in a thick cord. While it was always somewhat difficult to establish a connection between earth and the magic world, she had the ability to do so, under normal circumstances. Right now however, most of her magic was sealed. Mahora academy was the stronghold of the Kanto magic association, and a significant number of their faculty were mages. If she used a powerful spell on campus there was a high chance of getting detected. In order for her infiltration to be successful she had disabled everything but a passive magical barrier and a few basic spells. She untied the cord, removing the scroll's seal, and unfolded the yellowed parchment. She pressed her hand to the magic circle in the center of the paper. The ancient Greek and Sanskrit runes came to life under her fingers as a connection was established. The circle swirled and twisted and began to form an image. Soon she was staring at the face of her master.

"Fu, fu, fu, hello Mero-chan."She chuckled. "How was your first day of school?"

"Master, we may have a serious problem." The Averruncus said before recounting the events of the day. The mage of beginnings was silent as she spoke, but when she mentioned the name "Springfield" a brief flash of something, that may have been panic ran across her master's face.

"This complicates things." The life maker said finally. There had never been any news about the thousand master having children. After the war he practically vanished off the face of the planet. Perhaps he isn't- no, it would be foolish to assume he is unrelated."

"Should we delay the plan master? Perhaps wait for a time when the school is less guarded?"

"No. Even if this is the son of Nagi Springfeild, we cannot say for certain that he has inherited his father's magical power. Proceed as planned for now, just be cautious. He has no reason to suspect you. As long as you don't draw attention to yourself everything should be fine. But most importantly, under no circumstances are you to confront him unless you are absolutely certain of his his identity."

"Yes master. But what if he really is who he appears to be? What if we are discovered?" The answer was simple and direct.

"Kill him."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this is really happening. We're really doing this. I'm getting kinda nervous. Well I'm committed at this point, lets' go full speed ahead! Let's get a few things out of the way first. As this is based on a manga there will be Japanese honorifics. I'm assuming you all know them but for the two of you that don't here's a quick rundown: Sensei is obviously teacher, san, is a formal title used for people you don't know well, chan and kun are more casual titles usually used for young children to make them sound cuter. It's not really an honorific but "shoutacon" is someone who is interested in young boys. Negima also uses a lot of latin the most obvious being Magister Magi, which means "Master Mage". Going forward I'll probably include translations for the spells somewhere. I haven't figured out exactly how it's going to work, but we'll see. In terms of a schedule I will try my best to upload once a week but I make no promises. Till next time!


	3. Bath Time

_Rattle_ _Rattle_

"Huh? That's weird." Akashi Yuna said as she shook the doorknob of her dorm room. She stood in the hallway and put in her code again, but for some reason the lock wouldn't open. She wrapped her knuckles against the door. "Hello? Is someone in there?" The girl inside the room looked up at the sound.

"Ah, yes. Just a moment." After securing her scroll in her bag she pointed a hand at the door. "Dispelsatio" she whispered.

The spell on the door broke and her roommate walked in. Yuna was wearing basketball shorts and a jersey, with a towel draped over her shoulders. As she had just come from practice, she was coated in a layer of sweat. Her most notable features though, Mero observed, were her breasts. She was easily two or three cup sizes above her.

"Oh, the transfer student. So you're my roommate huh?"

"That is correct. I am Mero Averruncus."

"Akashi Yuna. Nice ta meet'cha." There was a pause. Mero seemed to be done with the conversation. "Hey," Yuna said gesturing to the door. "How'd you do that? The combinations to these doors are fixed, they don't change."

"No." She said matter of fact-ly. "They normally don't."

"How then?"

"I just altered it a little." She said, which was true.

"Wow." She whistled. "Looks like we've got our own little MacGyver over here." A mischievous grin spread across her face, and she leaned in close. "So what were you doing in here that you needed to lock the door huh?" Mero considered carefully before answering.

"I like my privacy."

"C'mon don't be like that. You can tell me. We're going to be roommates from now on, you can trust me. Unless, wait don't tell me you were doing 'those' kinds of things."

"What kinds of things?"She asked innocently.

"Y'know, like . . . something naughty . . ."

". . . What are you talking about?" Yuna stepped back.

"Okay, what then? Hey wait, that's your bag right? Heh, heh, maybe you're trying to hide something in there?" She casually reached for it and Mero sprang into action. She snatched the bag and held it away from her body.

"No. There is nothing suspicious in here. Please leave it alone."

"Saying that just makes me even more curious."

She half tackled the girl for the bag. Ordinarily the Averruncus would have frozen her or trapped her in a prison of water without a second thought. Unfortunately she forgot that her magic was locked away, so instead she just stood there as Yuna wrapped herself around her body. Not really knowing what to do or say to get her to stop, she simply raised the bag up above her head. Yuna stood up on her toes and reached for it. Because she was taller than her, she ended up pressing her large breasts into Mero's face. Immediately her smell washed over the smaller girl completely. In her short existence she had never felt such strong physical stimuli. It completely overwhelmed her senses. She awkwardly stumbled back and gasped for air.

"Uh, sorry," Yuna said backing off. "I didn't mean to touch you so much. I just came from practice and haven't showered yet." She sniffed her arm and recoiled a bit at her own body odor. "My bad, my bad. Hey if it's your first day that means you haven't been to the baths yet right?"

". . . No." She said still catching her breath.

"Then we should go together."

"N-No. It's fine. Please don't concern yourself with it."

"Nope, unacceptable." She said grabbing her by the wrist. "Female bonding is an essential part of our culture! After all you can't really get to know someone until you've seen them naked and washed their back. I'm sure some famous guy said that once."

Mero was a homunculus. Even without magic she was much stronger than any ordinary human, but her head was still spinning and disoriented. She didn't trust herself to pull away without injuring her. And besides, going to the bath was definitely preferable to staying here and risking Yuna finding her scroll. So she let the taller girl lead her away.

**X**

Two naked girls stepped into the massive bath of Mahora's middle school dorm. It actually more closely resembled a resort or a water park. There were artificial plants and trees decorating the bathing area, and even a small gazebo overlooking the water, where one could sit and relax.

"This is a very large bath." Mero said looking around.

"I know right? It's the pride of our dorm, our giant bath!" Yuna declared proudly.

Mero lowered herself into the water. It was cool and soothing on her skin. She was in her element, literally. With just a bit of magic she could manipulate the bath water any way she chose. She closed her eyes and laid her head back. She sat there for a few moments until an odd sensation snapped her back to reality. It was a smell, but not the stink of sweat she smelled on Yuna before, this was sweet and inviting. She sniffed the air, and turned to where her roommate was lathering up beside her. Yuna, who was humming to herself with closed eyes, nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw Mero's face staring from mere inches away."Gah! W-What is it?"

"I don't know." She said sniffing the other girl.

"Oh, it must be my bath soap you're smelling. Go ahead and smell all you like! After all I need to redeem myself from before." Mero seemed to accept her offer. She continued to inhale deep wafts of the sweet scent, as her face slowly drifted closer and closer, until she was once again nestled between Yuna's generous breasts.

Soft was the first word that came to her mind. _I didn't notice it before, but his girl is truly soft!_ She reached up with her hands to investigate, squeezing the delicate flesh between her fingers.

"Ha ha! You like those?" Yuna bragged. "I don't mind if you feel them, we're both girls after all!" Mero continued. "Yeah, just go ahead and. . . mng. . . Just, I mean ah, you can . . . Ahn" She let out a soft moan. "WOULD YOU CUT THAT OUT ALREADY!" She cried shoving the other girl away from her. Mero for her part, didn't seem to register that Yuna was upset. She was still trying to process the information.

_What interesting sensations. The elasticity makes my skin tingle, and I keep inhaling the smell almost involuntarily. Maybe this body is a bit too sensitive?_

"We may both be girls but you're still taking It too far!" Yuna shouted.

"Your body is very soft, and it has a nice scent." She said as if it explained everything.

"Uh, thanks, I guess? Here I'll give you some of my shampoo and body wash so just back off okay?"

"Hey what's going on in here?!"

"Oh, is that the transfer student?"

Mero and Yuna turned toward the new voices and saw half a dozen naked and towel clad girls enter the bath.

"What kind of indecent things were you girls doing in here?" Ayaka asked.

"Stop jumping to conclusions Incho. I was just giving her some soap."

"Eh? Reeeeeaaaallly?" Haruna said with a lecherous smile on her face.

"Please don't Imply weird things Paru." Yuna said trying not to add fuel to the fire.

"Yes, she gave me this." Mero held out the tube of gel."Lemme see, oh I use this kind too!" Konoka said.

"Ew. I-I'm really not good with slimy things." Makie recoiled in fear.

"How do you use it?" Mero asked.

"Eh?" All the other girls exclaimed.

"Do you really not know how to wash your hair?" She shook her head. Yuna sighed.

"Well it can't be helped. Give it here, I'll do it for you. Consider it a special service from your new roommate!" She began to work the gel into Mero's hair.

"Thank you, Akashi-san."

"Don't sweat it! And call me Yuna, we're all friends now."

"We are?"

"Of course! Didn't I say it before? Once you get naked and scrub each other you're already friends!"

"What you just said sounded really dirty though. . . " Makie cut in.

"Shut up!" She shouted back. "Seriously though, what kind of life have you had that you've never had to wash your own hair?"

"I've never used these types of things before. Is that strange?"

"Well kinda."

"Yeah," Makie agreed. "The white hair's unusual too. Are you really a foreigner?"

"Yes. I did not originate from this country." She admitted. Ayaka perked up at this.

"T-Then is it true? You really came here from Wales with Negi sensei?!"

"No. My homeland is much farther than that." She said swaying a bit under Yuna's fingers.

"Really?" Said Makie. "There's actually a rumor going around that Negi-kun is the long lost prince of some foreign nation, and you're a secret agent come to take him back to his country by force!"

Mero stared at her for several seconds before saying,

"That is ridiculous." With a completely straight face.

"Ehhh, so it's not true?" She sounded honestly disappointed.

"Geeze guys enough already!"

Everyone looked up and turned to Asuna, who had apparently come in while they were talking. "Can't you give the poor girl some space? It's only her first day, and you're already trying to scare her away with your craziness?"

"Come on Asuna, don't tell me your not curious." Haruna said. "What if she's come to take Negi-kun away from you?"

"Don't be Stupid Paru! She can have the brat for all I care!"

"Asuna-san!" Ayaka declared. "I will not allow you to speak about sensei in such a manner! Don't think you have some special privilege just because you share a room with Negi-sensei!"

What was that she just said?

"Negi-sensei is living in your room Asuna-san?"

"Eh, ah yeah . . . "

That certainly seemed unusual.

"Why?" She asked as Yuna rinsed the shampoo out of her hair.

"It was decided by my grandfather." Konoka chimed in.

"Your Grandfather?"

"Mmm hmm, my grandfather is the principal here."

What? If Negi-sensei really was the son of the thousand master then why would the head of the Kantou magic association want to pair him with this girl? Was it just a coincidence? It must be. The Averruncus of water looked her up and down. Kagurazaka Asuna, out of all the 2-A girls she'd met so far she didn't particularly stand out. She was tall, but not the tallest, had a pretty average build, albeit with some muscle tone on her, but there wasn't really anything special about her.

"W-What?" Asuna said uncomfortably.

"Why would Negi Springfield be living with you?" She wondered aloud.

"Aha!" Ayaka cried. "So you really are after sensei!"

"Yeah what is the deal with you two?" Haruna asked.

"C'mon tell us!" Makie pleaded. Everyone was looking at her expectantly.

"Nothing." She said. "I have never met him before. I just thought he might be an interesting person."

"Eh, that's it?" Yuna said.

"Is it common for teachers to appear so young?"

"Well I guess it's true that a 10 year old teacher would be pretty surprising." Konoka said.

"Yeah, we thought the same thing when we met him a couple weeks ago." Makie agreed.

They seemed to accept her response for now. That was fine. For the moment Negi Springfield was not an enemy or a threat, merely a young man with an unusual name. And Kagurazaka Asuna was the girl who just happened to share a room with him. Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Our protagonist officially has a roommate! I actually struggled for a long time about who should be Mero's roommate. I thought about who was the coolest girl, or my favorite, or the most important to the story, but for some reason I kept coming back to Yuna, who is none of those things. I don't know why but when I tried it out their interactions came really naturally to me. So I guess we'll see how this goes. Couple more notes about the dialogue for those who don't know or don't remember, "Incho" is japanese for class representative, so most people call Ayaka Incho (did I forget to mention she's the class rep? My bad.) And "Paru" is Haruna's nickname. Asuna and Yuna will usually call her that. Ok that's all I got. The next chapter's already being written, see you guys then!


	4. Sensation

The next day sitting in class Mero made a point to observe Asuna closely. Of course it was astronomically unlikely that she was anything other than an average middle school girl, regardless it wouldn't hurt to focus a little extra attention on her.

"Alright class," Negi said, "Who would like to translate this sentence for me?" No one raised their hand. "Okay how about Asuna-san?"

"WHY ARE YOU PICKING ON ME!" Asuna immediately snapped.

"Fu, fu, fu, how like a monkey." Ayaka said. "What are you getting offended for? Just answer the question. Unless of course you can't do it."

"O-O f course I can!" Asuna countered. "Let's see um 'Jason ate the flower for his lunch', um . . . 'but then dogs came to help' and um . . . "

"Asuna san," Mero observed "You are really bad at English."

"Guu" Asuna couldn't deny the transfer student's claim.

"Not just english, she's also bad at math." Ayaka said.

"And history." Haruna said.

"Japanese too, aru" Ku Fei added.

"And she's horrible at science." Hakase put in.

"In other words" Ayaka concluded, "She's a genuine idiot."

"I see, Asuna-san is an idiot." Mero agreed.

"Hey hey! Don't just blatantly insult someone with such a straight face!" Asuna cried.

**X**

Their next class was gym. As they ran down the track it became clear that Asuna's poor performance in the classroom was not a reflection of her skill on the field. She easily blazed past most of her classmates on the track. The only ones who managed to keep pace with her was seat number 9 Kasuga Misora, and Mero herself. If she'd been able to use supplementary magic she could have easily broken the sound barrier during the 100 meter dash, but even without magic her artificial muscles still put her on the level of an olympic athlete. It was nearly unthinkable that not one but two ordainary middle school girls were challenging her. She took first place of course, but only by a very slim margin, with Asuna and Misora finishing close behind.

"Haa, haa, wow." Misora wheezed. "You're really good. Why don't you join the track team?"

"Hey hey, just because I turned you down you immediately go for the new girl? You're such a fickle woman Misora!" Asuna joked.

"Nope, I still haven't given up on you either!" she retorted.

Looking around, her other classmates were all bent over catching their breath, all except four; Sakarazaki Setsuna, Tatsumiya Mana, Nagase Kaede, and Ku Fei. There was nothing strange about this in and of itself, but these four did manage to finish relatively close to Asuna, and were displaying no signs of fatigue whatsoever. Maybe she had just underestimated the humans from the old world? Regardless she made a mental note of these students.

"Impressive De Gozaru." Kaede said. "I didn't think there would be anyone who could best Misora donno so easily."

"That speed is master class level aru." Ku Fei agreed.

The rest of the events were not nearly as close. Setsuna, Kaede, Mana, and Ku all did exceptionally well in high jump, pole vault, and 100 meter hurdle. They were clearly the physically strongest in the class. Mero still outperformed them all.

"Incredible aru. With training she could be a good rival ne." Ku exclaimed. "Hey do you wanna join the chinese martial arts club?" She asked running up to the white haired girl.

"No." She answered instantly.

"Ha ha, I got rejected huh? Too bad arune." The exchange did not go unnoticed by the rest of the class.

"Hey is it just me, or is that girl kind of cool?" Kugumiya Madoka wondered aloud.

"I know right?" Kakizaki Misa agreed. "A mysterious white haired transfer student from a far off country who's also beautiful and athletic? It's like something out of a fairytale."

"Good grief." Asakura sighed. "Her second day here and she's already got a fan club?"

After class when the students retreated into the locker room, she continued to be the center of attention.

"Who would've thought, not only is she super cute and smart, our Mero-chan's a superstar on the field too!" Yuna exclaimed.

"Better watch out Mero-chan," Kakizaki warned. "If you're not careful some of the girls here might just fall for you."

"I am always careful." She replied. All her classmates roared with laughter.

"Although, there's something bothering me." Kugimiya said, when the laughing died down.

"What do you mean?" Yuna asked.

"Well her movements were super awesome, but something felt kinda . . . off."

"Yeah, almost like she didn't have . . . "

"Is something wrong?" Mero asked before taking off her gym shirt.

"Not really, we were just- WHOA WHAT THE-"

"What is it?" Mero asked innocently.

"What do you mean 'what?' Why the heck aren't you wearing a bra?!" Yuna demanded.

Sure enough, once the the shirt was removed her bare breasts sprang into view, unsupported and unobstructed.

"D-Don't tell me, you did all that exercise braless?" Asuna said in shocked horror.

"I knew she was looking a bit too bouncy back there!" Makie said.

"A bra?" The new girl seemed genuinely confused.

"Hey your not joking around are you?" Yuna grabbed her firmly by the shoulders and looked directly into her eyes. "Are you saying you've seriously been running around all this time without a bra?"

"I don't understand. What is a 'bra' and why is it so important that I have one?"

"Gah!" Yuna threw up her hands in frustration. "A bra, a brassiere! Like this!" She pulled up her shirt revealing her own overstuffed bra.

"I see, so this is called a bra?" She said inspecting the device curiously.

"No, no, this is just too weird. How can you not know what a bra is?" Around her, the other girls echoed the statement.

"Is that really so strange?"

"Yes! definitely! See how everyone else is wearing one?" She waved toward the half naked girls around them. "As soon as school is over were running out to go buy you some bras!"

"Is that really necessary? I don't really have any desire to go shopping with you."

"No objections! A growing teenage girl absolutely MUST have a bra!"

Mero sighed. It was clear that her classmates were not going to let the subject drop, no matter how pointless and trivial it seemed.

"Very well."

"Good. Let's invite these guys too, we'll make a date out of it." She blushed and rubbed her chest. "I've actually been meaning to get some new bra's too. My breasts have been growing a lot lately, and they're starting to get in the way during basketball.

**X**

"So um, why am I here exactly?" Asuna asked as she walked through Mahora's shopping district.

"Come on Asuna, don't say that. We've gotta help our classmate in need right?" Yuna said.

"Yeah!" Makie said. "It'll be fun!"

The group of girls walked into the lingerie shop and were immediately surrounded by rows and rows of colorful fabric.

"Okay, first things first," Yuna said. "Do you know your cup size?"

". . . I presume you are not referring to drinking cups?" Mero said after a moment. Yuna sighed.

"Honestly, I'm not even surprised anymore. Okay listen up, bra sizes are measured in cups. To get your size first we need to measure your full bust and under bust. Here Asuna will demonstrate."

"Like hell I will!" She cried smacking the other girl in the back of the head.

Her classmates explained that the full bust measurement refers to the diameter of the fullest part of the chest, while the under bust is the diameter of the abdomen under the breasts, and that the difference between the two measurements determines one's cup size.

"Okay, let's get you measured then!" Makie said shoving Mero into the changing area. Yuna joined them after grabbing a measuring tape from the store clerk.

"Alright, get undressed."

"Yes." She said before stepping out of her shoes and stripping off her uniform, revealing that she wasn't wearing panties either.

"What the hell!" Asuna exclaimed. "You don't wear panties either?!"

"Panties? Is that another under garment?" Yuna sighed and slapped her forehead.

"It's- you know what never mind. One problem at a time. Hold out your arms."

She did as she was told, and stood feet apart, arms spread and completely naked before her peers.

"W-Wow. You're really not shy are you?" Asuna noticed.

"Her complete lack of embarrassment is making me embarrassed." Makie said blushing.

"Yeah," Yuna agreed. "H-Here, start measuring." She said handing Makie the tape measure.

"Huh. W-Why me?"

"It's no big deal right? we're all girls here. Just do it."

"You should do it Yuna, you're roommates right?"

"Ugh, fine! I'll do it you big baby.

Mero maintained the same stoic expression as Yuna wrapped the measuring tape around her chest. Then she pulled the ends tight to read the measurement, squeezing the plastic against the tips of her breasts.

"Ah. . ." The sensation produced a soft moan from Mero. She began to tremble. It wasn't painful or even unpleasant, but it still created a powerful shock that penetrated deep into her body.

_As I thought, this body is too sensitive!_

"80 Centimeters." Yuna said before releasing her. "Okay, now we just have to pick out a bra."

"And underwear too!" Asuna reminded them.

"Yeah, what kind of styles do you like Mero-chan?" Makie said excitedly.

"It does not matter. I have no preference for style."

"Heh, heh, just leave it to us then! We'll make sure to pick something cute!"

A few minutes later, after Asuna harshly rejected the notion of sexy lingerie for the girl's first pair of underwear, they helped her try on a simple pale blue bra and panties set. She rubbed her breasts, observing how they fit into the strange device.

"Interesting. It's holding them up and supports them when I move."

"Now do you understand why you need a bra?"

"Yes. It's quite clever."

"How does it feel? It's not too tight is it?" Asuna asked.

"No, it's soft and comfortable."

"Take a look at yourself, what do you think?" Makie said turning her to the mirror.

She paused for a moment staring at her reflection. The light blue complemented her pale skin nicely. The brassiere pushed up her modest breasts and created a small valley. An elegant streamlined shape.

"The design is acceptable."

"Geez, Mero-chan. You always say the weirdest things. At times like these you should just say it's cute."

"It's, c-cute"

"Heh, heh, looks like we've got a winner."

After they made their purchases and left the store, Mero was expecting to return to the dorm immediately, but Makie suggested they visit a new desert cafe that had recently opened in the area.

"This place is great," she insisted. "It's not too popular yet, but all their cakes are awesome! Trust me you guy'll love it!"

It didn't seem like she had much choice, so she reluctantly followed the group. Soon they were all siting around a table outside of the cafe. Mero looked at the cake in front of her. She didn't actually need to eat if she didn't want to. As long as her core had an adequate supply of mana it could keep her energized for centuries.

"Wow, Makie-chan you were right this is great!" Asuna said digging into her pastry.

"Yeah, it's so sweet and fluffy!" Yuna agreed.

They seemed to be enjoying it quite a lot. Could they really get so much joy from a simple blend of cream and sugar? She took a bite. Her taste buds lit up so suddenly and drastically she nearly jumped out of her chair. Her hands shot to her mouth, and she doubled over. She couldn't stop shaking.

"Hey are you okay?" Yuna asked putting a hand on her shoulder.

"What's wrong are you feeling sick?" Makie said.

"Delicious."

"Eh?"

"This cake is incredible." Her voice was deadly serious as she said it.

She cleaned her plate. She wasn't messy, she cut careful precise slices and gently placed them in her mouth, but she did so at nearly superhuman speed. Her companions just stared at her blankly.

"What is it?" She asked.

They all immediately burst out laughing

"Ha, ha, no matter how good it is, you don't have to eat it so fast." Yuna said her arms at her sides.

"She doesn't really look like the type, but I guess Mero-chan has a bit of a sweet tooth huh?" Said Makie.

Did she really? It was difficult for her to judge considering this was the first time she'd actually eaten anything, but the strong response from her taste buds made it hard to deny. She decided it might not be so bad to have such a sensitive body.

"You're such a weird girl," Yuna said. "But that's not bad at all."

"Yeah," Asuna said. "You'll fit right in with everyone else in 2-A."

"Is it really okay to be fooling around like this though, aren't the end of term exams coming up next week?" Makie asked.

"Guh! Don't remind me." Asuna slumped her shoulders.

"Don't worry about it!" Yuna said. "This is an escalator school anyway!"

"Actually, this might be bad for Negi." Asuna said. "He's only a probationary teacher right now, if his class comes in last in the exams again. . . ."

"Wow Asuna you really do like Negi-kun don't you? I thought you said you hated kids." Yuna said.

"Damnit why is everyone saying that?!" She shouted. "Look when it comes to people who try their best at everything, I don't hate them even if they're kids."

"It's true," Makie agreed. "Even though he's only 10 Negi-kun can be surprisingly adult-like at times."

". . ." Mero said nothing.

"Hey tomorrow's Sunday, so why don't we have a study party?" Yuna suggested.

"Yeah, let's do it!" Makie cried. "Mero-chan you're coming too right?"

Tomorrow was Sunday, for the first time since arriving at Mahora she would be free to explore the campus on her own. It was the perfect opportunity to complete her mission objective.

"No. Sorry, but I have plans tomorrow."

"That's too bad. Well then, we'll have to make do with just the three of us!"

"Aren't you two Baka rangers though?" Yuna pointed out.

"SHUT UP!" Makie and Asuna replied simultaneously.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I'm just gonna come out and say it: this is the fanservice chapter. Did we really need to spend a chapter buying bras and panties? Probably not, but well, I thought it was funny. And honestly I think it really helped me captured the "spirit" of Negima. Sorry if some of you don't care for this kind of thing, I know it's probably not what you're reading for, but I think there's some pretty cool bits of character in here too. Don't worry it's not just gonna be fanservice hijinks every time, the story will be picking up very shortly. Only one terminology note this time. An "escalator school" is a school where the different levels are linked. There is a Mahora elementary school, middle school, high school, and university. So the girls aren't too worried because they can still move up even if their grades aren't that great. Okay see you guys next time!


	5. Let's Take a Walk!

It was Sunday. Mero Averruncus set out to complete her mission this day. She dressed herself in her uniform before realizing that it was actually the only set of clothes she owned. Would she stand out if she wore her school uniform on a Sunday? It probably didn't matter, but still it might be a good idea to think about getting some casual clothes in the future. She began her walk around campus. Her target was a large focal point of magical power located somewhere on the school grounds. She didn't know where on campus it was located or even what exactly she was looking for, but as long as she came into it's general vicinity she should have no problem sensing the flow of mana. That's how it should have been, but even after walking around for hours she felt nothing.

How could this be? She thought. If she were in the magical world, where magic was constantly in use then she could understand having trouble, but this was Earth where magic was rare, a huge mana source should be incredibly easy to find. So why wasn't she picking anything up? Mahora Academy was huge, it could be that she just hadn't come across it yet. She continued her investigation. The middle school division was only a small part of the campus, there was also an elementary school, high school, and university division, as well as a fair sized shopping district. It was essentially a fully functional city. It was impossible to explore the entire area in a single day. She considered using a locater spell to narrow her search. If she cast a spell on such a wide area though, it would be easy to detect by any mage who happened to be close by. Is it worth he risk? She was pondering the situation when she ran into Asuna.

"Mero-chan? What are you doing out here?"

"Nothing that concerns you. I am just walking around right now. What about you Asuna-san?"

"Oh, a bunch of us are studying for exams back at the dorm. Well more like we started studying and just ended up playing around. But anyway I just went to go buy some snacks for everyone." She held up a plastic bag from the convenience store. "Hey if you're not busy now, why don't you come with us? I bet you're pretty smart, Im sure we'd be able to make more progress with you there." Mero considered this. There was no point to studying with the others, but it was becoming clear that she was not going to find her target today. She should call it quits for now, and try again another day.

"No thank you, but I'm going to start heading back now, so I can walk with you."

The two girls began to walk back towards the dorm. As they arrived they approached an older gentleman with glasses in a grey suit. Asuna immediately flushed when she saw him.

"T-Takahata sensei!"

"Ah, Asuna-kun. It's been a while, how is everything?" He said to the blushing girl. Asuna fidgeted and stared at her shoes.

"E-Everything's great. Thank you so much for asking!" She said much louder than she needed to. Mero's eyes narrowed as soon as she heard the man's name.

"Takamichi T. Takahata!" Her usually calm and expressionless face contorted into an ugly scowl. Takahata was part of the group that thwarted the eternal garden twenty years ago. He helped dismantle her master's plan for a perfect world. This was her enemy.

"Oh, and who's this?" He said turning to the white haired girl. When she didn't answer Asuna tried to introduce her.

"She just transferred into our class the other day. Her name is M-" Mero immediately held out her hand and cut her off.

"My name is not something to be so easily given out to the likes of you Takamichi T. Takahata."

"Oh?" Takahata raised an eyebrow. "Have we met before young lady?"

"No."

"Eh? Wait, what's going on here?" Asuna looked back and forth between the two in confusion.

"Then allow me to introduce myself. I'm Takamichi T. Takahata, though it seems like you already knew that. I was homeroom teacher of 2-A before Negi-kun took over. Won't you tell me your name?" He said extending his hand.

"Please do not misunderstand. There is no reason for us to get to know each other. I have no intention of becoming close to you Takahata sensei." She said the last word with disdain, like it was an insult. Takahata put both his hands in his pockets.

"I'm sorry to hear that." His tone changed, and became suddenly serious.

"Hey, what the hell is this Mero-chan? Why are you being so rude to Takahata sensei?!" Asuna shouted.

"I am merely speaking the truth." She said bluntly. "This man has done nothing to earn my respect. I refuse to pay allegiance to him simply because you or anyone else does."

"Why you!"

"It's alright Asuna-kun." He said without taking his hands out of his pockets. "She's right, there's no reason to become friends right away. But I hope we can get along in the future." He offered her a friendly smile.

". . ." Mero's only response was a cold stare.

"I'm sorry Takahata sensei, I don't know what's gotten into her all of a sudden."

"Ha ha, it's okay Asuna-kun. But it's obvious I'm only making things awkward here. I'll leave you two alone." And he walked away.

"Geez, what is wrong with you!" Asuna shouted. "Insulting Takahata sensei for no reason!"

"I have a reason." Mero answered. "Why do you seem to admire him so much?"

"Huh? Uh, well that's. . ." Asuna stammered.

"Ha, ha, ha, she's right Kagurazaka Asuna."

The two girls turned around and were face to face with a very young looking girl with long blond hair, in a frilly white dress, accompanied by a much taller girl with long green hair and a pair of metal fins sticking out from behind her ears.

"Eva-chan and Chachamaru?" Asuna gasped.

"Good afternoon." The green haired girl said, bowing politely.

"You were listening just now? Hey wait did you say she was right?" Evangeline A. K. Mcdowell chuckled.

"Fu, fu, fu, Kagurazaka Asuna you really are a straightforward idiot aren't you?"

"Hey where is this coming from all of a sudden Eva-chan?!"

"Why should she respect Takamichi, because you're in love with him? How childish. People should be judged by the quality of their actions. You owe absolutely noting to someone you've just met. Or are you just sad because she insulted your crush?"

"Guu." Asuna had no retort. Evangeline then turned to Mero.

"Isn't that right transfer student? Or maybe you know something special about Takamichi that earns him so much hate?"

". . . Who are you?" Mero asked.

"Evangeline A. K. McDowel." She said with a sharp sinister smile.

". . . " She was clearly unsatisfied with that answer.

"Anyway, Kagurazaka is an idiot, you don't have to force yourself to get along with her."

"Grr, well sorry for being an idiot!" Asuna snapped.

"Now then, I have my own business to attend to." She turned to walk away.

"What about you Mckdowel-san?"

"Hmmm?"

"Should I force myself to get along with you?" The tension in the air was palpable as the question hung between them. Finally Evangeline broke the silence.

"Take care, Mero Averruncus. Let's go Chachamaru."

"If you will please excuse us." Chachamaru bowed again and left with her mistress.

Mero kept her eyes trained on both of them until they were out of sight.

"Hey, I don't know what you heard or who you heard it from, but Takahata sensei's a really great guy okay!" Asuna said blushing again.

"If you think that then you are naive. What do you really know about him?"

"I know plenty! For your information Takahata's been taking care of me since I was little, s-so there!"

"Fine. If that thought gives you comfort, then you should hold onto it."

"Gah! Why are you making it so hard to like you?!"

"It's fine if you don't like me."

"See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! Asuna shouted.

**X**

"Geez, I can't believe that girl!" Asuna cried, throwing herself on the floor of the dorm room.

"Um, Asuna-san, I know you're upset, but maybe we could focus on studying right now?" Nodoka said trying desperately to steer the conversation back to academics.

"I mean where does she get off acting all superior like that?!" Asuna whined.

"I'm sure Mero-donno has her reasons." Kaede said reaching over to grab a snack.

"Don't take it personally aru, she's never been in Takahata sensei's class." Ku added.

"Um guys", Nodoka said again. "If we could get back to studying?"

"Sorry Honya-chan, I'm just really riled up right now!" Asuna admitted.

"Okay everyone," Konoka said walking up to the group with a tray of steaming cups. "I made some tea so why don't you all take a break?"

"Uh, no, actually we've barley done any-"

"Yay! Konoka's tea!" Yuna jumped up and grabbed a cup. Nodoka sighed.

"Okay we can take a short break. But then we really need to get some work done."

"Don't be so uptight Honya," Yuna said, "It's basically a waste of time trying to tutor the baka rangers anyway."

"Who's a baka ranger?!" Asuna shouted.

"B-But if we don't do really well on our finals won't Negi-kun be in trouble?" Makie asked.

"It's probably hopeless aruyo." Ku admitted.

"N-No!" Nodoka spoke up. "I'll go through the material again, so let's all do our best okay? For sensei's sake."

"At this point I think we need a miracle." Yuna said with a sigh.

"Well," Yue said finally joining the conversation. "If studying won't work there is one thing we could do. . . "

"Huh, Yue you don't mean . . ." Nodoka exclaimed.

"Yes I'm talking about the magic book deep within library island." Yue confirmed.

"Wait what the heck are you guys talking about?" Asuna asked.

"Well you know how we're members of the library expedition club right? Well the truth is library island is actually way bigger than you think. There are dozens of floors below sea level and it's full of traps and snares. No one knows for sure how far down it goes.

"Yeah," Nodoka said. "We're only the middle school club so we aren't allowed on the lower floors, but there's a rumor that there's actually a magic book down there that can make you smarter just by reading it."

"Eh, just by reading it?" Asuna sounded skeptical.

"Ha, ha, come on, don't tell me you guys actually believe in something like that." Yuna laughed it off.

"Well it is just a rumor." Yue admitted. "But there are a number of unusual phenomena around campus, like the world tree for example."

"If something like that really existed the government would have carted it off a long time ago." She rebutled.

"No, wait this might actually be for real." Asuna said realization dawning on her. "Yue Honya-chan, we have to get that book!"

"Not you too Asuna." Yuna sighed.

"No, I don't think that's a good idea." Nodoka said. "Even if it does exist, library island is way too dangerous! It has all kinds of traps, even the university club can't go to the lowest floors. Just forget about that magic book okay?"

"You're right, it's completely impractical. I just thought it was worth mentioning." Yue sighed. "Let's just get back t studying."

"A magic book huh . . ." Asuna mused.

**X**

Takahata walked into dean Konoemon's office. The old man was sitting patiently behind his desk, with his fingers laced in front of him. His eyes were hidden under his thick bushy eyebrows, but it was clear he was a little concerned.

"Thanks for agreeing to see me on a Sunday."

"For you to call me out so suddenly I'm sure it must be serious." The dean said stroking his long gray beard.

"Maybe . . . let's hope I'm just overreacting."

"What is this about Takamichi-kun?"

"The new transfer student in Negi-kun's class."

"Ah, you mean Mero-chan."

"Mero?" Takahata asked.

"Yes, that was her name if I recall; Mero Averruncus."

"Averruncus?" Takahata jumped a little when he heard the name.

"Does that name mean something to you?"

"I don't know, maybe. It's just a name. I was only a kid back then, I could easily be mistaken."

"Ho ho, you think she might be somehow connected to Ala Rubra?"

". . ." Takahata stared at the ground in silence.

"Well there was nothing unusual about her transfer, all her paperwork seems to be in order, but if you feel it's necessary we could keep an eye on her, just in case."

"No, I'm just being paranoid. I'm sure she's just an ordinary girl, after all I can't call myself a teacher if go around spying on my students now can I? But still. . . "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much to say about this one, pretty sure you all know where this is going. For anyone who doesn't remember or just doesn't know "Honya"is Nodoka's nickname. It literally translates to "bookstore" or "bookshop owner." Till next time!


	6. Baka Rangers Assemble!

"Alright class," Negi said on monday morning. "As I'm sure you all know by now the end of term exams are less than a week away. So all week were going to have a special cram session every day!"

"Whaaaaaaat?" Most of the class cried out.

"I think it's a wonderful idea Sensei." Ayaka said.

"Every day is too much aru." Ku complained.

"Yeah Negi-kun, that's too mean!" Whined Makie.

"Well actually the truth is, something really bad will happen if we're the worst class in the year again." Negi began to sweat nervously. "So um, p-please do your best!"

"Eh, something bad?" Ku wondered aloud.

"Yeah what's that about Negi-kun?" Makie said.

"A-Anyway, let's start our cram session!" Negi sputtered.

What followed was a series of intense drills and quizzes. Most everyone was relieved when the bell rang.

Finally it's over." Asuna groaned.

"Um actually Asuna-san," Negi said. "I would like you and the baka- uh, I mean I would like you, Ku Fei-san, Nagase-san, Makie-san, and Yue-san to stay after class for some extra tutoring."

"Hey, you were about to call us baka rangers again weren't you?" She growled.

"Uh, I-I'm sure I don't know what you mean Asuna-san." He said nervously.

"Baka ranger?" Mero asked. "I've heard Asuna-san use that term before. Tell me what is a baka ranger?"

"Basically they're the stupidest people in the school." Yuna answered. "Our class is always last place in our grade, but those five girls are dead last. A special kind of dumb."

Kagurazaka Asuna, Ku Fei, and Nagase Kaede, were all people Mero had marked as being potential threats. And of course there was Negi Springfeild himself.

"Sensei, may I stay for the lesson as well?"

"You Mero-san?" Negi said looking at her quiz. "Your results were actually quite good. there's no reason for you to stay."

"Am I not allowed?"

"No, it's not like you can't but-"

"Splendid. I will see you this afternoon sensei."

After school that day, Negi Springfeild, Mero Averruncus, and the five baka rangers gathered in their classroom. Ku who had changed from her school uniform into a traditional chinese qipao, somersaulted into the room.

"Mahora 2-A's. . . " She kneeled in a dramatic pose with her arms spread wide. "Baka yellow is here!"

Yue did a sliding dash stopping at her side in a similar pose.

"2-A's baka black is here."

Kaede towered over them from behind with one hand on her hip and the other thrust forward triumphantly.

"Baka blue reporting in De Gozaru!"

Makie who had changed into a pink leotard acrobatically flipped over her, landing in a split between Ku and Yue.

"Baka pink is ready for action!" She declared flashing a peace sign. They all held their poses and waited. "C'mon Asuna, that's your cue!"

"Damnit!" She cried. "Cut it out with all the 'baka ranger' crap already!"

Negi who had been eagerly watching the whole performance, stood up and clapped enthusiastically.

"Wow, that was so cool!"

"Heh heh" Makie smiled. "Did you like that Negi-kun?"

"Yes! You were just like the hero's from that show I saw recently, pow-"

"Oh I see," Mero said cutting him off. "They are assigned code names based on their hair color. So that would make Asuna-san baka orange? No I suppose baka red would be more appropriate."

"Exactly!" Makie exclaimed. "Mero-chan you get it. But Asuna-san never wants to play and always screws up our combination."

"I am seriously going to hit you." Asuna scowled.

"Ahem." Negi cleared his throat and tried to compose himself. "Now that that's over with let's commence our after class lesson. I've prepared sample exams for all of you. You can't leave until you score at least a 6/10 okay?"

Yue was the first to leave with a perfect score of 10/10.

"Wow, that's amazing Yue-san!" Negi exclaimed. "See you can do it if you try!"

"Sorry Sensei. I just really hate studying." She admitted."

After the other baka rangers failed Negi gave a short lesson, then a second round of tests. This time Ku and Kaede both passed with a score of 8/10.

"Good job both of you!" Negi said.

"Yes. I still learning japanese. English is hard." Ku said.

"Oh yes, I remember Takamichi telling me your first language is chinese? It may be hard but please do your best!"

"Yes. Do my best!" She smiled and ruffled his hair.

After the next round of tests. Makie finally passed with a score of 6/10.

"Good job Makie-san, you just made it!" Negi said.

"Sorry for being so dumb Negi-kun." The pink haired girl said blushing. "Gymnastics practice doesn't leave too much time for studying."

After she had gone the only ones left in the room were Negi, Asuna, and Mero. After Asuna failed again she began shaking with anger.

"You still haven't passed yet?" Mero asked.

"Shut up!" Asuna shouted. "You can't do it either right?"

"No, I passed a long time ago." She said holding up her test, displaying the bright red 10/10 score.

"What, a perfect score? But how?!"

"It's not that difficult." She shrugged. "The alphabet and much of the vocabulary is similar to that of latin."

"What?" Negi looked up. "You know latin, Mero-san?"

"Yes. My . . . family made sure I had a thorough understanding of the language from a young age."

"I see . . ." For a moment his brow furrowed, like he was considering something important. "How nice. Now let's get back to the lesson."

**X**

"Geez, who does that brat think he is?" Asuna sighed as she walked into the dorm's bath.

"Ah, it's Asuna!" Makie said as she saw her approach.

"She escaped aru!" Said Ku. The other baka rangers were bathing as well, and Asuna sat down next to them.

"That Negi brat is being way too strict!" She continued. "Even if my grades are bad, this is an escalator school, so it's not like I can't go to high-school!"

"It's not that unreasonable." Yue said. "He is a teacher after all. Of course he would want his class to do well."

"Even so that was just too much!"

"Asuna, everyone! Big news!" They all looked up and saw Konoka running towards them.

"Huh? What's up Konoka?"

"Well actually there's a rumor that the class with the lowest scores on the exam will be broken up."

"What?" Everyone cried out simultaneously.

"But Mahora doesn't break up classes!" Asuna protested.

"I don't know I heard it from Sakurako." Konoka admitted. "And apparently the  _really_ dumb people will be held back and be sent all the way back to kindergarden!"

"Okay that's definitely a lie." Asuna said.

"Wait, didn't Negi-kun say this morning that something really bad would happen if we fail?" Makie realized.

"He was quite strict today De gozaro." Kaede said.

"Eh, that's true." Asuna realized. "Even if getting held back was just a rumor, maybe Negi would really be in trouble if we all fail."

"Either way, getting last place again would be bad aru." Ku said.

"Now that you think about it aren't we the ones holding back the rest of the class?" Makie said.

"Negi . . . what can we do?" Asuna wondered. "Wait Yue-chan, didn't you say something about a magic book before?"

"Yes, but the chances of it actually existing are-"

"No, it exists" Asuna said confidently. "It definitely exists! You have to believe Yue-chan!"

"I mean it's not like it's impossible right?" Makie suggested.

"Isn't library island full of traps aru?" Ku asked. "It could be good training."

"No" Yue said firmly. "I know I was the one that brought it up in the first place but you guys don't understand how dangerous that place is for novices."

"It'll be fine" Asuna assured her. "You and Honya-chan are experts at exploring that place right? With all of us going there's nothing to worry about!"

"I don't know. . ." Yue was still unsure.

"You needn't worry Yue-donno. Ku and I will take responsibility for our safety. You can count on us."

"Fine." Yue sighed. "But if we do this we need to be prepared. We should ask Mero-san to come too."

"Geh!" Asuna flinched uncomfortably. "What do want to bring her for?!"

"Sorry Asuna-san, I know you don't like her much, but we need as much help as possible. You saw how well she did in gym the other day. She could be even stronger than you."

"Grr, fine we'll ask her." Asuna relented. "But that brat probably won't want to come with us anyway. You'll see she won't even consider it!"

**X**

"A magic book?" Mero asked puzzled. After their bath Konoka Nodoka and the baka rangers had gathered outside her dorm room to recruit the mysterious girl.

"I know, it's completely ridiculous right?" Asuna said quickly. "Sorry to waste your time with something so stupid. Come on guys let's go!" She pivoted on her foot to leave as soon as possible.

"Please wait." The transfer student said halting her in her tracks. "What exactly is library island?"

"Allow me to explain." Yue said. "It sits in the middle of the lake at the center of Mahora. It's the largest library in the world established in the megi era with this academy. During World War II rare and important books from all over the world were moved there for safe keeping. As the collection grew the library was expanded underground and safety measures were put into place to protect it. Nowadays there isn't a single person who knows the layout of the entire island. That's why the library expedition club was formed, to uncover the secrets of library island."

"I see." Mero said. "Let me consider this for a moment."

Something like a magic book was nothing special. Magical tomes and spell books were all too common in her world. What really intrigued her was library island itself. What Yue described was perfectly reasonable. It was common for skilled mages to erect fortresses and traps to safeguard their treasures. She already knew there was a magical power source somewhere on campus. Could this library island really be it? It would explain why she hadn't found anything during her search the day before. If it was she could use the library expedition club lead her there.

"Alright," she said after a few seconds. "I will accompany you."

"Eh, just like that?" Asuna said in disbelief.

"Yes. Let's go to library island.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay things are really starting to ramp up now! Sorry about that cliff hanger ending. I really wanted to get to the action this time, but it probably would've made the chapter too long. Next week we go to library island! This is the start of our first official arc so I hope you all look forward to it. Feedback and criticism is always appreciated. See you all next time!


	7. Library Island

"Wow." Asuna exclaimed as they walked into the building. She Ku, Kaede, Makie, Yue, Nodoka and Mero found themselves at the entrance of a massive structure. The ceiling was several stories high and the interior was completely occupied by oversized bookcases. Some covered the walls, some stood freely, and others sloped at different angles to connect multiple levels."Is this really a library?"

"Yes" Yue confirmed. "It was modeled after the island of St George in Venice Italy."

"It looks more like a dungeon from a video game." She replied.

Yue pulled out a map and laid out a simple path. "The magic book is located here. If we move quickly the round trip should take about four hours."

"Four hours?" Mero asked.

"It can't be helped." Nodoka said. "Remember there are traps, and the library is designed to confuse intruders.

"Let's get going then."

The traps on the uppermost floors were all deactivated. The first section of the journey was essentially a tour of a large elaborate library. Yue and Nodoka were quick to point out whenever they passed a particularly rare or valuable book, but Mero didn't notice anything that could be magical. She was beginning to get anxious. This could be a colossal waste of time. Asuna walked behind her and stared at her back in silence.

"Asuna-san," Mero said without turning around. "If there is something bothering you, perhaps you should just say it."

"Er, uh," The statement seemed to catch her off guard. "Well, it's just, why are you here?"

". . ." The white haired girl turned and gave her a blank look.

"Uh, I mean, why did you want to come with us? You aced all the practice tests, you should do great on the final, so why do you want to get the magic book?" Asuna asked.

"Well you might say I'm interested . . . "

"In library island?" Asuna wondered.

"In magic." Mero answered. Asuna stopped in her tracks. Mero looked back and found herself on the receiving end of a curious stare from the other girl.

"Mero-san are you . . . ?"

"Am I what Asuna-san?"

"Uh, never mind." Asuna shook her head. "Sorry I asked such a weird question. Forget about it."

"What about you Asuna-san?"

"Huh, what do you mean?"

"Why are you trying to find this magic book? If what you said about this school is true you shouldn't be so worried about your grades. Could it be you're actually trying to save Negi sensei's reputation?"

"Eh, wha-what-" Asuna fumbled uncomfortably, but composed herself quickly. "Y-Yeah. Something like that. That Negi is a brat. He's so childish and never thinks anything through, but . . . he is serious about being a teacher. It's just wouldn't be fair for him to fail because of us." Asuna blushed. "G-Go ahead and laugh at me if you want."

"No, I wasn't going to." She said. "To dedicate yourself to a cause greater than yourself is very commendable. You are a good person Asuna-san."

"Uh, t-thanks."

"Hey don't fall behind you two!" Yue called from up ahead. "It would be bad if you got lost here!"

"Ah, we're coming Yue-chan!" Asuna shouted before catching up to the rest of the group. They came to a new area where the bookcases were even larger. The balcony led into walkways that were actually  _on top_ of the bookcases, connected by simple wooden bridges.

"Wow, we're actually walking on top of bookshelves? Seems pretty weird." Said Makie walking across the first bridge.

"Yes," Yue said. "Just be careful. If you fall from here you won't get off with just a few scrapes."

"It's okay Yue-chan we'll be-" The next step she took caused the bridge to collapse.

"Makie-chan!" Asuna cried out as the other girl fell. Then in one swift motion she pulled out her gymnastics ribbon and swung it up to the balcony, where it wrapped around the railing.

"Phew, that was a close one!" She breathed as she hung suspended from the ribbon.

"Makie's ribbon sure is useful aru." Ku said, as Makie casually swung herself over to the other bookcase.

"I know right?" She answered. "It's super convenient for grabbing snacks when I'm sitting under the heated table!" Mero looked at Makie, then at the others. None of them seemed the least bit surprised by what just happened.

"Is that . . . normal?" she asked turning to Asuna.

"Well, Makie-chan is in the gymnastics club after all."

"I see. . . "

Makie was on the farther shelf, but with the bridge broken the others were separated from her. Yue pulled out the map.

"There should be another way around somewhere."

"Excuse me, Yue-donno" Kaede said before scooping her up in her arms and jumping over the gap. Mero watched as Asuna took Nodoka across and Ku followed close behind. This wasn't surprising after the abilities they'd already displayed. Of course the jump was easy for Mero, and she quickly caught up to the group. They continued their trek through the library. Soon the catwalk terminated in a shear drop from the tallest bookcase yet. The ridge stretched down into the darkness, well past the point that they could see.

"What do we do now Yue-chan?" Makie asked. Yue began rummaging through her backpack.

"Now we climb." She said as she pulled out harnesses and climbing equipment.

Mero peered over the edge. She would have no problem just flying down with her magic, but even if her abilities weren't suppressed that wasn't an option as long as she remained with the group. She sighed and began strapping herself in with the others. After a lengthy climb they finally reached the next sub-level. This part of the library was made of old weathered stone, and had a distinctly ancient presence about it. Mero felt it. A slight tingling sensation that teetered just on the edge of her perception.

"Alright, the clubs aren't allowed past this point." Yue said. "From here on out this is uncharted territory."

A few steps into the cavern Mero stepped on a switch hidden in the floor, and an arrow shot out from the shelf in front of her. She turned toward the projectile. There was no way a simple arrowhead could pierce her magical barrier. All she had to do was concentrate and it would bounce off easily, but before she could Kaede was there snatching it out of the air.

"Be careful, Mero-donno."

Impossible. She had been at least ten feet away from her, yet in the time since the arrow fired, she had been able to identify the incoming threat, close the distance, and catch the arrow, all without any apparent effort.

"How did you do that?" Mero demanded.

"Kaede-san's always training up in the mountains." Makie said. "She's basically a ninja."

What kind of over simplified explanation was that? While she was processing that, Nodoka hit a trip wire, causing one of the massive bookshelves to come crashing down.

"Look out Honya chan!" Ku cried out as she jumped into the air and struck the bookcase with a flying kick, shattering the wood and scattering the books.  _That was ki!_ Mero physically gasped when she saw this. An ordinary person couldn't learn to use their body's internal energy so easily just by training a little.

"How . . ."

"Never underestimate the power of 4000 years of chinese martial arts." Ku said bowing respectfully.

"Ku-chan is the captain of the Chinese martial arts club." Asuna clarified.

"We may not be good at studying," Makie said. "But the one thing we baka rangers are confident in is our physical abilities!"

_Just who are these people?_ Mero wondered, finally closing her mouth.

"Come on." Yue snapped her back to reality. "From here it's mostly guesswork, but I have a rough course plotted. Based on the the layout of the rest of the building I'd say the best route is along the east wing."

As they continued the sensation persisted. There was no doubt about it, she was sensing magic. The mana was getting stronger, meaning they were getting closer to it's source. This was it, the mana source she was looking for was here. It had to be. They encountered more traps. At one point a heavy log swung down on a rope threatening to crush them. Ku planted her feet, lowered her stance, and blew the whole thing apart with a single straight punch. Afterward a series of wooden spikes rained down on them from above. Before Mero even registered the attack, Kaede jumped over them and shot them all down with a set of daggers she produced from her clothes. It was becoming impossible to entertain the notion that these two were anything resembling normal girls. Even Asuna, who seemed the most normal managed to kick down a heavy wooden door that blocked their path when Yue couldn't find a way to open it.

"Alright everyone." Nodoka said. "There should be a safe zone coming up ahead. We should stop there and have our packed lunches."

What? They were stopping?

"Yes!" Ku said. "I've been waiting for this!"

No! Mero thought. They were so close! They couldn't stop now! She looked around, and her companions were already rolling out blankets and unpacking food. Wait this could be her chance. If she could separate from the others here then she could complete her mission uninterrupted!

"You all can relieve yourselves here. I will go on ahead."

"That's a bad idea." Yue warned. "We should stick together."

"What you're not going to eat with us aru?" Ku said, shoving a rice ball into her mouth.

"No. I'm going to continue. I will reconvene with you all later."

"Hey, Konoka's cooking is really good you know." Asuna said offering up a bento box.

"No thank you, I'm going-"

"Yeah," Makie said. "Have some anmitsu."

Mero turned her head slowly.

"What is that?" She was holding a bowl full of jelly cubes, sweet bean paste, and an assortment of fruits.

"Heh, heh, you'll just have to try it for yourself Mero-chan." She said handing her the treat.

She accepted it gingerly, as if she wasn't sure what to do with it. She sat down and took a bite. It was very different from the cake she had before. There were a variety of flavors that fit together in a way she didn't fully understand. She savored the taste. In a few moments she was staring at an empty bowl.  _What am I doing?_  She said to herself. She was a disciple of the lifemaker, tasked with the most important mission in history, yet here she was indulging in some, admittedly delicious, local cuisine.

"Thank you." She stood up and wiped her mouth. "I will go scout the terrain ahead." She said before quickly running off.

"Ah wait Mero-chan!" Makie called out after her.

"She's gone aru." Ku said still eating. Yue sighed.

"Well, there's nothing for it. We'll have to go after her."

**X**

Mero Averruncus ran full speed ahead toward the source of magic. She had to move quickly, she ignored every trap she activated. Some sharp metal needles shot toward her face. Before they could impale her she swiped her hand in front of her, catching each projectile. She kept sprinting onward until a trap door opened under her. Just as she began to fall she front flipped back onto the floor and kept running. Almost immediately after she was nearly decapitated by a long blade that slid out from the wall. Without even pausing she threw her head back and slid under it. The fact that the traps had increased this much in frequency and intensity must mean that she was getting close to her goal.

The corridor ended in a large chamber bordered on either side by a river. On the far side of the room, was an ornately carved ivory door decorated with magic sigils and pentagrams. Kneeling in front of the door was a colossal statue. It appeared to be made of clay or stone, with knight's armor and a sword hanging from it's waist. In front of it on a small podium was a stone tablet with a series of questions inscribed onto it. After taking in the scene, Mero approached the door. As soon as she got close the statue began to move. It's joints groaned as the warrior rose to his full height. Then the statue drew his long double edged sword, and planted it's point in the ground between his feet with his fingers laced around it's hilt. Not a statue, she realized; a golem. A creature created by alchemy, and animated by a puppetry spell. From a technical standpoint it was actually quite similar to herself. Well 'similar' in the same way a steam engine is similar to a nuclear reactor. A single purple light lit up the golem's face and he began to speak.

"Who goes there?" The voice was deep and steady, without any kind of inflection. "State your name and purpose."

"Stand aside. The Averruncus of water has need of this place."

"Only those who prove themselves worthy may enter the hidden library. Step forward and face the challenge."

She inspected the tablet. It appeared to be a set of questions designed to test a person's intelligence and 'prove their worth'. She didn't have time for this. She had to secure the area before the baka rangers realized what she was up to.

"I've no time for your game golem. Stand aside."

"None shall pass without completing the challenge." Now she was getting frustrated. She puffed out her chest and raised her voice.

"In the name of the Lifemaker, and the bloodline of Vespertatia, you  _will_ let me pass!" The golem's voice maintained the same steady monotone base as he answered.

"No."

"Then perish."

The golem raised his sword above his head. He was at least twelve feet tall, Mero didn't even reach his waist. She charged forward, and he brought the sword down. She raised her arm and reinforced her magic barrier. The sword slammed against the invisible wall of force. She pushed against it with all her strength, but it soon became clear that her tiny body could not move the stone behemoth. She slid backwards and the sword cleaved through the ground where she had been standing a moment ago. Looking at the gash in the stone she decided that she had to do something about that sword. The golem lifted the weapon to attack again. Mero raised her hand and chanted.

"Frigerans exarmatio." [Freezing Disarmament]

Immediately cold frigid air blew from her palm. Frost and ice collected on the blade until it froze. The brittle stone then shattered and blew away in the wind. The monster continued to advance barehanded. Mero jumped out of the way as his fist slammed into the ground. Seeing her chance she lunged forward and struck the golem with her open palm.

"Gah!" She recoiled and clutched her wrist. The golem hadn't even flinched. Without magic to enhance her physical strength, she was at a clear disadvantage against this opponent. He swung his fist again. Mero ducked under it and escaped through the gap between his legs. Then pushing off the ground she jumped back and kicked the golem in the back of the knee. It's leg bent and the guardian crumpled to the ground.

"Impaired or not you shan't best this Averruncus so easily."

Before she could attack again, the golem whipped around and struck her with his massive forearm. She flew across the room and crashed violently into the wall. She let out a pained squeal as the impact tore through her body. The hard stone bit into her flesh, tearing her clothes and bruising her skin. She slid off the wall and collapsed on the floor.  _Wha-what is this?_ she thought.  _My whole body is on fire! He completely overwhelmed my anti-physical barrier. Ngth! I-I can't move!_ She began to panic.  _No calm down._ She put a hand to her chest and did a quick diagnostic.  _The injuries are only external. My core and internal mana flow remain intact. Stop overreacting!_  She mentally scolded herself. Trembling, she slowly stood up. The golem had already recovered from her initial attack and was lumbering toward her. Mero took a deep breath.  _You are a disciple of the Lifemaker._ She reminded herself.  _You cannot allow yourself to fall here!_ The enemy was approaching, she had to act fast. There was no way she could compete with him physically, and with her magic restricted her options were severely limited.

"Visju Tal Li Sjutal Vangeit." A stone boot lifted above her head, poised to crush her. "Acceleret!" [Accelerate] As the foot came down she dashed away at blinding speed. The golem swung wildly in a vain attempt to catch the girl, but mana propelled her body across the floor at an impossible speed. She wouldn't be able to keep this up indefinitely though. With her injuries it as only a matter of time until she was caught. A sharp pain ran through her leg and she dropped to one knee. The golem rushed in. She wouldn't be able to use that spell again, she had to attack.

"Visju tal li sjutal vangeit, undetriginta spiritus aquarius, coeuntes sagitent inimicum." [Gather 29 spirits of water, strike my enemy] Twenty nine balls of water gathered and hovered in the air around her. "Sagitta magica, series aquarius!" [Magic arrows series of water!] The orbs shot forward, blasting the giant in the chest and legs. Each time one of the liquid projectiles hit, it cracked and eroded the stone creature's body. After the onslaught the creature once again collapsed to the ground.

After taking a moment to catch her breath, Mero carefully approached the fallen foe. She noticed it wasn't completely disabled. It's limbs still flailed trying desperately to repel the intruder.

"U-U-U-Unworthy, may not pa-pa-pa-knowledge restricted to-zzzz." It's voice was now warped and garbled. From the looks of it, the spell powering him was still active, but his body was to damaged to move. She walked in a wide arc around it, and finally approached the door.

"At last." She exhaled as she put her hand on the barrier. Immediately a magic circle appeared where she touched it, filled with complex patterns and shapes. "No." She sighed in disbelief. This was a multi-layered mandala style seal. Even with all the knowledge she had it could take hours to decipher. She pushed against the door. It glowed brightly but didn't budge. Of course not. There was no way to open this with physical force. She turned around.

"Golem. I demand you release this seal!" She jumped at what she saw. The golem was back on his feet! Impossible. Did it repair itself? It advanced toward her, albeit slower than before. She raised her arms to fight, and her wounds complained. "Ngth." Damn, why didn't she heal herself when she had the chance?

_Whoosh_

Something large and metal flew thew the air, embedding itself in the ground between her and the golem. It was a bladed four pointed star, about six feet across. A giant shurriken? She turned to the direction the weapon came from and saw the baka rangers standing at the entrance.

"Excuse us Mr. Golem." Yue said bravely. "Would you kindly step away from our classmate?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay got a lot say about this one! First I'm sorry this chapter is delayed. It had a lot more bugs to work out than I thought. This is a pretty important milestone for us, we finally got our first fight scene! Negima! has some of the best fight choreography I've ever seen in a manga, so I was really excited to write some. Because of that, this chapter ended up being pretty long. The first draft was well over 5,000 words, about twice as long as the previous chapters. I always intended for these to be relatively short, like something you could read on your lunch break or while waiting for a bus. I ended up splitting it in two, so the next chapter's mostly done and should be up in the next day or two. In regards to the spells, for now I've decided to write them out phonetically and leave the translation in brackets. If you don't like this method just tell me, and if enough people agree I'll consider changing it. Promise the next chapter won't take so long. See you then!


	8. Go Go Baka Rangers!

"Hey, hey," Asuna said "Is this for real?" She was staring at a giant rock man, standing over Mero's bruised and battered form. "What is all this?"

"I've seen this before aru." Ku said. "On my brother's playstation."

"It's a golem." Yue said awestruck.

"L-Like the golem of Prague?" Nodoka asked.

"What are you guys talking about?" Asuna demanded.

"According to legend," Yue explained, "it's a man of clay brought to life by a word of truth written on it's forehead. Though I don't see any writing, so maybe that description isn't totally accurate."

"And what the heck is something like that doing under the school?!" The red head shouted.

"I always knew this school was weird, but isn't this too much?" Makie said.

The golem looked back and forth between Mero and the others, as if deciding which was the bigger threat. The others hadn't made any move towards the door, so the golem turned it's attention towards Mero.

"Makie-san, get Mero-san away from there." Yue ordered.

"Sure thing, Yue-chan!" She said whipping out her ribbon. The fabric wrapped around Mero's waist, but just before she pulled it taught, the golem moved to intercept her.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?!" Asuna cried, and without thinking she ran up and tackled the stone warrior's chest. Despite his massive weight, the attack actually caused him to wobble a bit. Asuna winced and clutched her shoulder. Unfortunately the stone man was not hindered and grabbed her in his colossal hand as Makie pulled Mero in with her ribbon and caught her in her arms.

"Are you okay Mero-chan?"

"Y-Yes." She said dumbfounded.

"There's no way that's true, you're covered in wounds!" Nodoka exclaimed.

"Ahhh!" Asuna cried as the monster squeezed her in his grip.

"I'm coming Asuna!" Ku said as she rushed in.

She crouched right underneath it, and stretched her body upward extending her leg in a vertical kick. The sole of her foot hit the giant's wrist, and cracked it, forcing him to release Asuna. As soon as she was free Makie's ribbon caught her and pulled her to safety.

"Good work, Makie-san." Yue said. "Okay, now that our people are safe, our priority is to escape. Ku see if you can distract it."

"No!" Mero protested. "The magic book is behind that door. If you don't want this entire mission to be in vain, we have to defeat that golem!" Yue gave her a look, then turned back to the battle. The leader of the chinese martial arts club was trading blows with the giant. Despite striking the stone with her bare fists and elbows she didn't seem to be injuring herself.

"How's it looking Ku?" Yue called.

"I don't know, he's pretty tough aru." She parried an attack by the golem and lunged forward with her own punch. "Mati Bung Chuen!"

The punch exploded in the creature's abdomen, and it's massive body went sailing across the room. Mero was awestruck. Weather she was aware of it or not, that level of ki control was incredible.

"Your attacks are strong aru." Ku said. "But you're too slow!" She charged forward to deliver the final blow. The golem sat up and glared at her with it's single glowing eye. Kaede seemed to notice something that she didn't.

"Wait Ku!"

As she approached the enemy his eye glowed brightly, and a beam of light projected from it. Ku's eyes widened as she realized her mistake. Kaede jerked her arm back, pulling on a thin wire, and the giant shurriken in the ground behind the golem flew toward her. The weapon connected with it's back diverting the bean just enough for Ku to jump out of the way.

"Ngth! I was careless aru." She said cradling her left arm. It was burned where the beam grazed it. Kaede stepped in front of her.

"Stand back Ku."

She positioned the shurriken around her body, and dashed toward the enemy with the blade pointed forward.

"Don't be a fool." Mero thought. "A frontal attack is useless."

The sentinel fired another beam of energy. Kaede dove straight in and was enveloped in purple light.

"Kaede!" Asuna cried.

The sound had barely left her throat when the ninja girl appeared in mid air above the golem, with a knife in each hand.

"An afterimage?" Mero realized. Kaede descended on the enemy and slashed across it's back. It staggered quite a bit, but didn't fall. Kaede examined her knives, which were chipped and cracked.

"I may have underestimated this brute."

The golem swung his hand through her body, as he did her form flickered and disappeared. Her actual body appeared in front of it again. She held up her hand with her index and middle finger extended as she concentrated her ki.

"It looks like I'll have to get serious De Gozaru."

Her body blurred and flickered until there were four identical copies of her standing side by side.

"More afterimages?" Mero wondered. "No, those are actual dopplegangers. What kind of technique is this?"

The four Kaedes ran around their enemy, easily avoiding his attacks and slashing at his joints. Eventually the behemoth fell to his knees. With his movement restricted he began blasting at her with his laser beam. She jumped and dodged, but the blasts shook the whole room and reduced the walls to rubble.

"Ngth." Yue shielded her eyes from the debris. "You've got to disable that beam weapon before he brings down the whole island!"

Kaede threw her daggers at the creature's eye, but the blades bounced harmlessly of the stone.

"No good, De Gozaru?"

"Leave it to me aru!"

Ku ran back into the battle. The golem tried to counter her with a punch, but she casually leaped leaped over it. She was eye level with the monster as it prepared to fire again.

"Not this time aru!"

Ku pressed her palm to it's arm to support herself, and kicked him square in the face. The stone that made up his face cracked and splintered. Purple energy sparked all around him.

"The mana is leaking out." Mero realized.

The creature's body spasmed, causing Ku to lose her balance and fall to the floor.

"Gah!" She landed hard on her injured arm. The golem raised his fist. Before he brought it down Makie's ribbon tied around it.

"Leave Ku-chan alone!"

The pink haired girl wasn't strong enough to actually stop the attack, but she did slow it down long enough for Kaede to get into position and throw her shurriken. The giant razor edged disk flew through the air and cut clean through the wrist Ku had cracked earlier. More light sparked from the opening in his arm where his hand used to be.

"Thanks Kaede aru."

"It's become too unstable!" Mero warned. "We have to do something!"

"The river." Yue said. "We can drown it. Guys you have to drag it into the river somehow!"

"Understood, Yue-donno." Kaede and her three dopplegangers surrounded the target. They each threw a chain and ensnared the golem. All the cracks in it's body glowed intensely. The four Kaede's leaped toward the water, but even with the four of them they struggled to pull the dense stone behind them.

"Would you. Just. Go. Down!" Asuna shouted.

She threw her body at the creature and kicked out with both her legs, pushing it back. Kaede was then able to drag it all the way to the edge where he rooted his feet and grasped the floor with his remaining hand. The golem's entire body glowed. It seemed to be charging up one final attack.

"Let's finish it Asuna!" Ku said. They both ran up to it an punched simultaneously."Pao Chuan!" [cannon fist] Shouted Ku as she attacked.

"Take this!" Asuna cried as her knuckles bit into the stone.

Together they managed to dislodge it from the riverbank, and Kaede pulled it the rest of the way into the water. As soon as the giant disappeared under it's surface there was a huge explosion, spraying water and dirt across the room.

Mero was speechless. The enemy she had been struggling with, albeit in her weakened state, was defeated by these middle school girls.

"Is it . . . dead?" Asuna asked nervously.

"It was never alive." Mero confirmed. "Think of it as a doll, animated by magic and programed to stop any intruders here."

"How do you know that?"

". . ."

"She's right." Yue said. "In the stories, golems were used for all sorts of jobs and once the word of truth was erased from their forehead they turn back into ordinary clay.

"Wow, you really know you're stuff Yue-chan." Asuna said impressed.

"The more pressing issue," Mero continued. "Is how to get past this door."

"I assume it's sealed by some kind of magic." Yue said. "Mero-san, you got here ahead of us, did you see or hear anything that could help?"

"It mentioned a challenge." She said.

"A challenge?" Yue approached the tablet. "The door would probably have opened if we answered these, but now that the golem has been destroyed will it still work?"

"Why should we have to answer aru? We should just break down the door!" Ku ran up the the door and punched it as hard as she could.

Once again the door merely glowed and repulsed the attack.

"Owie!" She cried rubbing her hand.

"Looks like it won't be so easy De Gozaru." Kaede observed.

"Let me give it a try." Asuna said walking up the entrance.

Mero was reminded just how stupid Asuna was. Despite being told that it was sealed by magic, and having just seen her classmate fail to do the same, why would she think she'd be able to break through?

"Hiyah!" Asuna kicked the door. Like before it glowed brightly, but this time the light stopped abruptly and the door flew off it's hinges.

"Asuna did it aru?" Ku said slightly confused.

"Impressive De Gozaru." Kaede nodded.

Mero was utterly speechless. She was able to break a multilayered ward with pure physical strength? Inconceivable! Even a skilled mage would take a considerable amount of time to disable that, and she just kicked it. Was Asuna even a mage? No, even if she was, there was no sign of the spell actually breaking. It was just there one second and gone the next. What was going on here?

"Hey, Mero-chan!" Makie called. "What are you spacing out for? Our goal is right in front of us!"

"That's right." Yue said. "The magic book should be right through here." She gave a wry smile. "Let's go claim it!"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about that pun in the title, couldn't help myself. Like I said before this was originally part of the previous chapter, before I broke it up, so it might be a little short on it's own. Anyway the girls have finally had their first battle! I think it came out pretty well if I do say so myself. Before anyone one has a chance to point it out, I admit I did raise their skill level compared to the manga as Ku could not initially use ki. In my defense she was fighting those demons pretty well in Kyoto, so I don't think it's too farfetched, and Kaede could use her clones from day one. Unfortunately I couldn't find any translation for Ku's "Mati Bung Chuen" but it refers to the big punch she uses in chapter 49. If I do find it I'll be sure to add it in later. Criticism and suggestions are greatly appreciated. See you all next time!


	9. Escape From Library Island

The group stood before the open doorway and stared into the gloom. Their objective was finally within reach. For the baka rangers that objective was academic security, for Mero Averruncus it was her whole purpose in coming to this world.

"I will go in first." She said. "In fact, you all should stay here."

"I don't think that's a good Idea." Yue said. "You're wounded pretty badly. Kaede should take the vanguard."

 _Damn!_  Once again she cursed herself for not performing a healing spell on herself before the others arrived, now it was too late. She had No logical reason to reject Yue's suggestion. Her wounds did hurt though. Perhaps given the circumstances this was the best option.

"Very well." The white haired girl said as she fell in line behind the others.

 As the party walked down the dark corridor, Mero found herself drawn to Asuna.

 "Asuna-san, how did you manage to break down that door?"

"How?" She scratched her head. "I don't know I just kicked it."

"Yes, but your attack actually managed to get through while Ku Fei-san's did not."

 "I really don't know what to tell you. I guess I just got lucky?"

 She considered saying more, but decided against it.

 "Yes that must be it."

 The hallway gave way to a large rectangular room. In contrast to the rest of the island, this place resembled a traditional library. Solid brick walls filled with rows and rows of ordinary bookshelves, with another doorway on the opposite side. The average person may have wondered how the furnishings could look so new, but to Mero it was obvious; this room was preserved by magic. Every wall was soaked in mana. This room had been in close proximity to powerful magic for a very long time.

 "Is this it?" Makie asked.

 "Which one is the magic book aru?" Ku said

"Are we going to have to check all of these?" Asuna groaned.

 The girls wandered around the room pulling random books off shelves.

 "I can't read any of this!" Makie complained.

 "This isn't japanese aru." Ku added.

 Mero opened a book. It was written in latin like most magic texts, and listed some complex incantations. This was a spell book! She picked up another. This one was a history book detailing the war in the magic world. Another book talked about the strengths and weaknesses of various magical creatures. Where were they? Could this be dean Konoemon's personal library? She wondered. If that was the case maybe she could learn something useful here. Or perhaps it would be better to destroy it completely and deal a blow to the Kantou magic association. Either way she couldn't leave this library empty handed.

 "It looks like all these books are in latin." Yue said examining a spell book.

 "Whaaaa- so then coming here was all for nothing?" Makie cried.

 "It's no use if we can't even read these." Nodoka said.

 "Wait, Mero can read latin." Asuna remembered.

 All eyes turned to her.

 "I-Is it true Mero-chan?" Makie asked. "Can you really read this stuff?"

This wasn't good. She shouldn't have let it slip that she knew latin. Now she had no reason not to translate for them. What's more she needed their help to transport all the books. She couldn't very well say 'help me gather all these books, but don't take any of them for yourselves.'

 "For now let's try to pack up as many books as we can." She said. "We'll see about translating or whatever else after."

 Now that it had come to this, it seemed her only option was to have the baka rangers help her, then steal the books back from them later. They busied themselves loading as many books as they could into a pair of duffel bags they had brought with them. When she was certain she wouldn't be noticed, Mero snuck off to a corner of the library. Despite all the magical energy in the area, she sill wasn't convinced it was the place of power she was searching for. This place had clearly been _affected_ by great magic, but it wasn't the source of it. If she had to guess there was probably a natural mana spring somewhere above them, she just had to locate it. Down here she was far away from the eyes of any enemy mages. She closed her eyes and chanted a spell. She reached out with her senses, following the trail of mana. It went up, out of the library and through the bedrock. Further, further, and . . . _there_. The edges of her mouth turned up in a smile. She found it.

 Her celebration was immediately cut short, as the whole library lit up. A stone slab slid down from the ceiling to block each exit. The entire room began to hum, and glowing runes appeared on the walls.

"What's going on?!" Asuna cried.

"Is it another trap?" Nodoka worried.

No, examining the books didn't seem to set off any traps. Was this triggered by her spell?

"Tch, I was careless."

A magic circle appeared on the floor in front of each bookcase and glowed brightly.

"A summoning spell?" She wondered aloud.

A golem, identical to the one they'd just fought emerged from each circle. There were at least a dozen of them. The nearest giant turned to Mero and swung it's sword. She ducked under it and rolled away. Around the room the baka rangers were avoiding attacks from the other golems.

"What happened aru?" Said Ku dodging a blow from the golem in front of her.

"It doesn't look like they're going to let us leave without a fight De Gozaro." Kaede pulled four long blades from her uniform and fit them together to form her shurriken.

"But we could barely take on one of these things!" Asuna exclaimed. "How are we going to get out of this?!" A golem swiped at her. She jumped up and kicked it in the head. It fired a laser that just barely missed her, and hit her skirt, setting it on fire.

"Wah, wah, wah!" Asuna ran in circles waving her behind trying to put out the flame. She eventually succeeded and the fire died. In it's place was a hole revealing her white bear print panties.

"I hate these things!"

"Kyaaa!" Nodoka screamed as a golem reached for her duffel.

"No!" Mero ran to intercept it, but the golem in front of her swung it's sword down. She sidestepped and the blade was embedded in the floor. The golem punched with his free hand.

"Deflexio." [wind shield]

She conjured an invisible wall between them, and though it absorbed most of the blow's impact it did not stop it. She held up both her hands to block the massive punch, but with her reduced strength and her injuries it was all she could do to hold back the giant.

"Guh, ugh!"

This wasn't working. She shifted her weight, rotating her body in a tight circle and sending the giant fist slamming into the floor beside her. The golem, now on it's hands and knees before it's foe, bean charging it's laser beam. Mero spread her arms out and grabbed the side of it's head, then performing another circular motion she slammed it's face into the ground. The beam went off, causing an explosion that knocked her across the room.

"Hey, what was that aru?" Ku Fei said looking her way. "Tai Chi? Ba gua?"

Mero ignored her. She turned back to Yue and Nodoka. The golem had already seized the first bag. Yue slung the remaining duffel over her shoulder and took Nodoka by the hand.

"Let's run Nodoka."

The two ran down the aisle, until their path was blocked by another stone giant.

"You will not be leaving with that." It said before raising it's weapon. Before it brought it down, four daggers stabbed into it's exposed chest. The golem didn't even slow down, but then paper tags attached to each dagger smoldered and exploded. Kaede jumped in front of the two girls.

"It's time to go, Yue-donno, Nodoka-donno."

"B-But we're trapped in here." Nodoka worried.

"Stand clear." The ninja girl said before rushing in. She stabbed at the giant's face. When it tried to grab her, she kicked off it's body and jumped away, towards the end of the room. The golem fired it's mana beam. She dodged, and it blew a hole in the the exit door.

"We have an escape route." Yue said. "Let's go everyone!"

Mero was hesitant to leave the library so soon, but this was a battle they were not likely to win. Ku kicked the debris out of the doorway and they all fled. The floor opened into a larger area that connected to adjacent hallways and staircases.

"Which way do we go?!" Asuna cried.

"Give me a minute to check the map." Yue said.

 _Bam!_  One of the golem's beams blasted the ground right next to them.

"Damn it! We'll just have to pick at random." Asuna got ready to jump into the nearest corridor.

"Wait!" Mero said. When she cast her locator spell, she got a vague sense of the area along the trail of mana. She couldn't tell much, but she did know there was a tunnel leading to the surface somewhere in this area. "Come this way." She pointed to the doorway on the opposite side of the room.

"How do you know?"

". . ."

Asuna locked eyes with her and made a decision. "Alright let's go!"

They ran toward it, and the enemies rushed to block their path. Asuna kicked one drawing it's attention, while Nodoka and Yue slid between it's legs and ran through the door. The others followed, then Ku turned back and lunged at the pursuing golem.

"Sotenshu!" [Dual knock over palm!]

She struck the magic giant with both her palms, sending it flying into the enemies behind it. The girls escaped as the constructs stumbled over each other trying to right themselves. Once they were through the doorway Kaede threw an exploding dagger above the frame, sealing the entrance with rubble.

The chamber was a large cylinder, stretching up for what looked like miles. A spiral staircase ran along the wall up the length of the tunnel.

"Will this take us to the surface?" Yue wondered.

"It's so long." Nodoka said. "How long will it take to climb this?"

"We don't have a choice." Asuna said grimly.

The girls began running up the massive staircase. They were only a few stories up when they heard a loud crash. The golems had entered the tunnel. Despite their size they caught up surprisingly quickly.

"You will return what you have stolen." One of them said bearing down on Yue.

Kaede's shurriken hit it's head causing it to stumble. Then Makie tripped it with her ribbon. The earthen warrior lost it's footing, and plummeted into the abyss. The girls kept running, dodging swords and beams from the golems. Ku dropped one off the staircase with a kick. Kaede's clones tackled another sending it over as well.

"Haa, haa, I can't run anymore." Nodoka panted.

They slowed down, and a golem wrapped it's hand around the bag. Yue grasped the other end firmly and pulled with all her might. Nodoka helped her, but they were clearly not going to win the struggle.

 "No!" Mero rushed toward them. After all the trouble they had gone through to get that she was not going to give it up that easily!

_RIIIIIP_

The flimsy canvas tore, and the two girls were flung backward, scattering the contents of the bag. Yue fell hard. Her head hit a step and she fell unconscience, still clutching the torn cloth in her hands.

"Yue, Yue!" Nodoka cried, desperately shaking her friend. The giant was off balance, and stumbled. Kaede leapt into action and knocked it over the edge. She put her hands together and produced two clones. One picked up Yue in her arms, the other carried Nodoka on her back. They all resumed their climb, leaving Mero behind. When the bag ripped a single book landed on the step directly in front of her. It was thin with golden runes on the cover. It was probably the only thing she would be able to physically recover from library island. Quickly, before anyone could see, she slipped the book into her jacket. It was something at least.

 She caught up to the others just in time to see Asuna backhanded into the wall by one of the golems. She was dazed and defenseless as it approached her. Makie Kaede and Ku were all occupied with their own enemies. Was Asuna going to die? Mero couldn't decide if this was good or bad. Of course eliminating a potential threat was good, but Asuna wasn't a mage or ki user, surely she didn't need to die. And then there was that incident with the door. If she did posses some kind of unique power maybe it would be better to get rid of her now. But if she got close to her, maybe she could use it to her benifit. The golem was bearing down on her. She had to make a decision now.

 "Acceleret!" [Accelerate]

She sprinted forward and tackled the monster with enough force to topple it.

"Ah!" She felt her shoulder pop, then she and the golem fell over the edge. Could she survive the drop? There was no way her thin magic barrier would be able to protect her completely. She couldn't move her right arm anymore. Was she going to die?

"You are such . . . "

"Huh?"

"An idiot!" Asuna reached over the edge and grabbed her by the wrist. "Guh!" The weight of the other girl pulled her down and pinned her to the staircase. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?!"

"Did you just call me an idiot Asuna-san?"

"Shut up! You're so annoying, even when you're saving me! What's the point if you die too idiot?!"

"Ah . . ." She opened her mouth, but there was nothing she could say that would explain her actions.

"Grrr . . . aaah . . . " Asuna grunted and slowly pulled her back onto the ledge. "Let's all escape together." Mero looked at her.

"Okay."

"Can you stand?" She tried and her legs buckled.

"Go on without me. I'll recover in a moment."

"Geez, what did I just say?!" She picked her up, princess style, and ran. Mero rested her head against Asuna's chest. She could have just healed herself and ran on her own, yet there she was sitting in Asuna's embrace like a sheltered child.

Once they made it about half way up the tunnel, they came to a large circular platform, suspended in the middle of the spiral staircase.

"Wait, stop!" Mero said noticing a magic circle carved into the middle of the platform. "Put me down."

Asuna did so, and Mero kneeled to examine the circle. She guessed it was designed to travel up and down the length of the tunnel like an elevator.

"What are you doing?!" Asuna cried. "They're coming!"

Kaede set down Yue and Nodoka beside her, then turned to face the approaching enemies.

"Why are they still chasing us?" Nodoka said. "We lost all the books!"

"If you're going to try something Mero-donno." Kaede said. "Now is the time." Ku Asuna and Makie gathered around her at the edge of the platform.

If she activated the elevator they could escape almost immediately, but then she would risk exposing her magic. If she didn't they would soon be overrun by golems. If she unsealed her powers she could easily defeat them of course, but if she revealed her identity to her classmates, she would be forced to kill them.

"Here they come aru!" Ku said readying her stance

"Excitant!" [Activate] Mero slammed her left hand into the magic circle and activated the spell.

"Wha . . . wha?" Yue's eyes fluttered open just as the symbols lit up and the platform accelerated upward. The girls huddled together as the staircase rushed past them, leaving the golems and library island behind.

**X**

"Man, library island was terrible aru!" Ku exclaimed.

"Haha, I thought it was fun." Makie said.

It was already morning when they reached the surface. They emerged from a tunnel behind the dorm.

"Even after all that we didn't even get the magic book." Asuna groaned.

Mero put a hand to her breast, but said nothing.

"At least we got out safely." Yue sighed. She fiddled with the torn cloth she'd been carrying, and her fingers closed around something hard. She gasped. "This-"

"What is it Yue-san?" Mero leaned in closely.

"It -" She hesitated. "N-Nothing, Mero-san. I'm just tired. Let's all get some rest."

"What on earth happened to you girls!"

They turned to see Negi running toward the group of battered and bruised students.

"Well," Asuna said. "It's a long story . . . "

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was a lot of stuff I wanted to put in this chapter, and it was pretty tricky to fit them all in. I'm about ready to finish up this arc. It should be done by next week. I'm really passionate about this story, and it means a lot to me that you guys have stuck with it for this long. Seriously, thanks.


	10. A Little Bit Of Courage

"What?!" Negi shouted. "You went to a magical dungeon?!!!"

"Well," Asuna said, "Technically it was a library."

After their adventure the baka rangers had returned to their rooms where Asuna recounted the story to their teacher.

"Asuna-san, how could you even consider doing something so dangerous?!"

"What! You're the one who's been acting weird! Working us so hard so hard without telling us why, and saying something bad was going to happen if we don't get out of last place. Of course we'd do something like this!"

"Whaaa- I-I didn't . . . I'm sorry. You're right. I shouldn't have pressured you like that. The truth is, this is also the final exam for me as a teacher. If 2-A can pull out of last place I will be recognized as an official teacher."  
  
"What? You- " She banged her fist on the top of his head. "Baka Negi! That"s super important! Why didn't you tell us?" Negi twisted his fingers nervously.

"B-But, this is my problem, I can't involve all of you-"

"Don't be stupid!" She snapped. "You may be a brat, but that doesn't mean we want you to go away!"

"Thank you for that Asuna-san. But even so I don't think you should be using something like a magic book. You can't rely on magic to solve your problems all the time."

"What are you talking about, you're a mage aren't you? What's the point of magic if you don't use it?"

"Back home uncle used to tell me this: 'Our magic is not omnipotent. A little bit of courage is the real magic.'"

"Gah, fine!" She threw up her hands. "All I have to do is study right?"

"Asuna-san?"

"If you're working this hard to become a teacher it's the least I can do. I won't let you quit so easily!"

"Thank you Asuna-san."

**X**

"Good morning class." Negi said starting homeroom.

"Morning Sensei!"

"Um, before we start today's lessonI think I owe all of you an apology." He took a deep breath. "I haven't been totally honest with you. If 2-A can moves out of last place in the final exams, I will become an official teacher."

The girls gasped in shock.

"Wait so then what if we fail?" Haruna asked.

"Will Negi-kun be fired?" Konoka wondered.

"What?!" Ayaka cried out. "This is the first I'm hearing about this! Sensei how could you neglect to tell us something so important?!"

"Yeah Negi-kun," Makie said. "Why didn't you tell us?!"

"I didn't want to cause any of you to worry, this is my own personal problem after all."

"D-Don't say that Sensei!" Nodoka cried. "This is our fault in the first place!"

"Thank you Nodoka-san, but this is because of my own shortcomings and inexpeirence. I just tried to push you all as hard as I could, and that isn't fair. I'm still in training to be a teacher, just like you I'm here to learn. So . . . why don't we start over? There are three more days until the test, let's try our best together!"

"Yes Sensei!" Everyone cheered.

**X**

Deep beneath the school, a magic circle activated in library island. It glowed brightly, and two men stepped out of the light. Konoe Konemon, and Takamichi T. Takahata looked around the room and saw nothing but wreckage. The library was nearly destroyed; bookcases were on the floor, the walls had been blasted to rubble, and most concerning, there were torn scraps of clothing all over the room. There had obviously been a struggle here.

"Well, this doesn't look good does it?" Konoemon said.

"No it doesn't." Takahata said before lighting a cigarette.

"The obvious questions are 'who did this' and 'why'." The dean began walking through the ruins.

"Did you change the enchantment on the golems?" Takahata asked. "I thought they weren't able to attack on their own."

"They weren't." The old man stroked his beard. "The parameters of the spell were that they would would only engage in combat once they were directly attacked." He picked up a piece of stone that was once part of a golem. "What's more they were designed to only respond with an appropriate level of force. If they fought this hard and were still defeated . . . the intruder must have been quite powerful."

"We would know if the school's barrier had been breached," Takahata said. "This must have been someone on campus."

"Are you suggesting it was a teacher or a student? Because I really don't want to believe that." Takahata took a long puff of smoke from is cigarette.

"This isn't good." He said.

"No it isn't." Konoemon agreed.

**X**

"See Asuna-san?" Negi said after class. "In this situation you conjugate the verb like this."

"Uh, I guess . . . " She replied.

Negi hadn't required her to stay after class again, but after their talk that morning, she agreed to an additional study session in their room. They were just starting to make progress when they heard a knock at the door. Konoka answered it, revealing Mero standing in the doorway.

"Hi Mero-chan!" She said happily.

"Good evening." Mero said bowing her head

"Come on in, I'll put on some tea. How do you like it Mero-chan?"

"Cream and sugar." She decided. Konoka headed to the kitchenette to prepare the tea, and Asuna looked up at her guest.

"Mero, what are you doing here?"

"Yes well, I know how much you struggle with english. I've seen your marks and frankly it's incredible how bad they are. Even today you're results didn't seem to improve much. It's actually a bit concerning."

"Mmmmn." Asuna frowned. "Yeah, yeah, I know I'm an idiot! Baka red right?"

"C-Calm down Asuna-san," Negi said. "Your scores are steadily geting better." He turned to Mero. "Asuna-san really is trying her best."

"I know. That's why I came to help her study."

"Eh?" Asuna blinked in surprise.

"That's wonderful Mero-san!" Negi exclaimed. "I'm so glad to see my students getting along!"

"Y-Yeah. Thanks." Asuna said awkwardly.

"Why don't you show me what you're working on?" She took a seat between them.

The three began studying. It became clear that while Mero had a good grasp of the material, she was not very good at explaining it. Even after reiterating the information Asuna still failed to grasp it.

"What about this are you not getting?" She sighed.

"Of course I wouldn't understand if you just give me the same explanation over and over! Idiot!" Mero paused at that.

"Somehow I really don't want to be called an idiot by you Asuna-san."

"S-Shut up! Idiot!"

Then the door swung open and in stepped the rest of the baka rangers and the library expedition club.

"What's going in here?" Makie said.

"Hey looks like you guys have already started!" Haruna said.

"What's everyone doing here?" Negi asked.

"Go on Nodoka." Yue said nudging her friend forward.

"W-Well," Nodoka spoke up. "We want to support sensei if we can. So . . . please let us study with you!"

"Nodoka-san, everyone . . ." Negi was completely awed. "Alright, let's give it our best!"

**X**

For the next three days the study sessions continued. Negi and Nodoka were vital in teaching and conveying information to the baka rangers. Slowly their scores began to improve. Mero wanted to investigate the magic power she'd located as quickly as possible, but she couldn't do that as long as she was spending so much time with the others. She considered removing herself from the group, but decided against it. There would be plenty of time to complete the mission after the exam. However, during the night after Yuna had fallen asleep she was able to examine the book she had taken from library island. It seemed to be an index of magical information. While he own magical knowledge was not lacking, it contained a lot of useful information about earth, such as known magical associations, certain magic artifacts, and the locations of the planet's ley lines. It even had an active connection to the mahou-net, giving her access to a whole network of data. Most intriguing to her was an article about something called the World Tree. A large number of ley lines converged on it, and judging by it's position on the map it seemed to be the same location she had sensed in the library.

"This is it!" She declared out loud.

"Huh! Whazzat?" Yuna bolted upright in her bunk. "What Mero-chan?" She said rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "What's going on?"

"Nothing!" She shouted slamming the book shut.

"Huh? What are you reading in the middle of the night?" She asked.

"Nothing! Yuna-san don't look over here!" She hastily tried to hide the book behind her.

"Why-wait are you . . .?" Her face went red as she came to a conclusion. "Um, never mind. I'm going back to sleep, just um, be sure to clean up when you're done okay?" Yuna lied down and pulled the covers over her head.

Mero wasn't sure why she had left her alone, it seemed he secret was safe for now.

**X**

Finally the day of the test arrived. After all their hours of studying the baka rangers had actually managed to get their grades up to passing levels. The only remaining question was weather it was enough to get them out of last place.

"Everyone," Negi said. "I-I'm sorry about library island. You shouldn't feel like you have to put yourselves in danger for my sake. But you've managed to improve so much even without the magic book. This week you've made incredible progress in such a short amount of time. What I'm trying to say is I'm proud of you. Whatever happens I'm honored to have been your teacher."

"Don't worry sensei!" Nodoka cried. "We'll do our best, we won't let sensei get fired!"

"Y-Yeah we'll manage somehow!" Makie chimed in.

"Leave the rest to us, De Gozaru." Kaede said.

"We got this Negi." Asuna said confidently. "All we need is that little bit of courage right?"

"I don't particularly mind either way," Mero said. "But I'm sure we'll pass."

"What are you saying Mero-chan?" Makie said. "You were the one helping us study."

"No that was-"

Just then the test administrator noticed them lingering in the hallway.

"Hey you six! Hurry up and take your seats!" He shouted.

Asuna gave her teacher a thumbs up and they disappeared into the classroom.

The next morning all the second years had gathered in the auditorium for the results. The air was thick with tension. Everyone in 2-A was uncharacteristically quiet. Negi had his hands clasped in silent prayer. Mero turned to Asuna who was trembling with anticipation.

"Asuna-san," She said. "You are an idiot."

"Geh!" Asuna nearly fell over in surprise. "What the hell is that for all of a sudden?!"

"But you studied very hard." Mero continued. "All week you've pushed yourself and your efforts have yielded impressive results. So don't worry. Everything will be fine."

"Heh, thanks Mero-chan." She smiled. "I really needed that."

"Well then it's time to unveil the class grades!" The announcer said. "In first place . . . second year class 2-A!"

"Eh!" Negi jumped back in surprise. "W-Were number one?!"

"Alright!!!" Everyone cheered.

"Sensei!" Nodoka ran up to him so quickly they nearly crashed. "C-Congratulations!"

"N-No." Negi stammered. "This is all thanks to all of your hard work."

"I-um, I look forward to having you teach again next term sensei!"

"Yes congratulations Negi-kun." Konoemon said strolling toward them.

"Eh, principal?" Negi exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to see the class rankings. Good job getting first place, it seems all your hard work has paid off."

"Thank you principal!"

"Your final test was to see if you could act like a teacher when it really counts, and I'd say you've proved yourself. Let me be the first to welcome you as an official teacher of Mahora, Negi sensei."

"Heh, good for you Negi." Asuna smirked.

It looks like Negi Springfeild would be staying on as a teacher for the foreseeable future. Mero gave him a hard look.

"Congratulations sensei."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We finally got through the Library island arc! I don't think it came out too bad personally. It was sort of a test to see if I even could write a decent arc. The future arcs are going to get a lot more complicated. Unfortunately it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to post in a while. My sister just had surgery and is bed ridden for the next six weeks. My house is also being repaired, so I won't have a whole lot of time to write. I'll try to upload the next chapter as soon as possible, but there's no way It'll be done in a week. That's all for now, see you next time.


	11. Baka White

"Good morning Mero-chan." Konoemon said as the mysterious girl walked into his office.

"You wanted to see me principal sensei?" She said.

"Yes. Please have a seat." After a moment of hesitation, Mero pulled out the chair and sat.

"I won't keep you long." He said. "I'm sure you'll want to get to the closing ceremony."

"Not particularly." She said flatly.

"Oh, okay then. How are you adjusting to Mahora so far? I know it must be difficult transferring in right before the end of the term. Is there anything we can do to make you more comfortable here?"

"No."

Konoemon scratched his head. This conversation was not going the way he had hoped.

"Well, I don't wan't to take up any more of your time. Just one more question before you go. Have you ever heard of library island?"

"Yes. I explored that island last week."

"What?!" Konoemon jumped up in shock.

In hindsight it may not have been a good idea to reveal to the leader of the Kanto magic association that she had broken into his library. She made the same mistake when she told Asuna she knew latin. If this mission was going to be successful she would have to be more clever with her deceptions.

"You mean to tell me you actually managed to get in and out of library island all by yourself?!"

"No."

"What . . ?"

"I have never been to library island."

"Huh . . . O . . . kay" Konoemon was at a loss. She just admitted she broke into the library, but then immediately denied it, so it wasn't technically a confession . . . right? Either way he didn't have any actual proof.

"Am I free to go now?"

"Er, yes of course."

"Well," He said to himself after she left. "What are we going to do about this?"

**X**

The closing ceremony was fairly short. Konoemon gave a speech and officially introduced Negi as the newest teacher to the school, then they were all released for spring break.

"Ahh finally!" Sakurako said stretching her arms above her head. "Spring break is here!"

"Lot's of stuff happened this semester." Konoka said. "Negi-kun became our new teacher, Mero-chan transferred in, and we even managed to score first place in the finals."

"Let's have an end of year party to celebrate!" Makie suggested.

"Yeah that's a great idea!" Yuna agreed.

"Negi-kun, have you ever done Sakura viewing?" Makie asked Negi.

"Oh you mean japanese cherry blossoms right?" Negi said. "No I haven't. I think they're in season now right?

"Then it's settled!" She shouted. "Let's have a sakura viewing topping the year party!"

"Yeah!" Her classmates cheered.

"You're coming right Mero-chan?" Yuna said.

"No." She said. "Sorry, but I have something to do today."

"Come on!" Yuna exclaimed. "It's spring break, what could you possibly have to do. Just hang out with us!"

"Mero-san," Nodoka said quietly. "You traveled with us to library island, and helped us study for the final. You contributed to this day just as much as any of us. Won't you come and celebrate with us?"

". . . " She seemed to consider it for a moment.

"Hey Mero-chan," Makie said. "It's not just the view, we'll bring snacks too." She flinched just a little.

"Snacks? Like anmitsu?" She asked.

"Sure! We can make some mochi, and taiyaki too!"

"Well, I suppose I can join you for a short while." She mumbled.

"Ha ha, if you want to get Mero-chan to go somewhere, all you need to do is bribe her with sweets." Makie chuckled.

"Makie-san what exactly do you mean by that?"

"Don't mind it Mero-chan! Right now let's party!"

That afternoon most of 2-A had gather under a sakura tree on a hill overlooking the campus. The cherry blossoms had already began to bloom. A gentle breeze carried the pink petals up into the sky, where they shimmered in the sunlight.

"It's so beautiful!" Negi breathed.

"Heh, I knew you would say that." Asuna said.

"What is this?" Mero asked holding up a sweet bun.

"Hm? It's manju" Yuna answered.

"Manju? I see." She said before biting into it and filling her mouth with sweet bean paste. "Mmmm."

"Hey Mero-chan why don't take a look over here?" Makie said gesturing to the horizon.

Reluctantly she looked up from her food out to the sakura trees. It reminded her of the view from the grave keeper's palace in the magic world. Sitting on the hill above the massive city-like campus was akin to standing over the ruins of the destroyed capital of Vespertatia, only in this case the city was full of warmth and life.

"It's beautiful isn't it?"

"Yes." She said softly.

"What's with that serious look?" Yuna said. "This is supposed to be a party!" She slapped her on the back. Mero jumped up and instinctively raised her hands. She had to physically stop herself from attacking the other girl. The result looked more like she just flailed and fell over clumsily. The two girls just stared at each other awkwardly. A moment passed and Yuna burst out laughing. Mero slowly sat back down.

"Don't . . . do that."

"Come on loosen up a bit!" Yuna said chugging her drink. "We're all here to have fun!"

"Actually," Makie said, "I think she just came for the food." Mero glared at her.

"Don't be like that Mero-chan. After all we've been through we're close enough to joke around with each other. You're practically a baka ranger yourself!"

". . . What?"

"That's a good point." Konoka said. "She has been spending a lot of time with the rangers hasn't she?"

"So does that make her baka white then?" Haruna wondered.

"Oooh, I like that!" Yuna said.

"Somehow that kinda fits." Asuna said turning to Mero. "'Baka White'"

"Don't call me that." Mero said wrinkling her forehead.

"Now that I think about it, even though she's really smart she can act surprisingly silly at times." Makie said. Asuna was trying her hardest not to laugh. A muscle above Mero's eye twitched involuntarily.

"Were only kidding Mero-chan." Makie reached out a hand to pat her on the shoulder, but Mero grabbed her wrist and held it like a vice.

"Hey don't be so rough." She winced, and tried to pull her hand back. She couldn't break Mero's grip and lost her balance. She latched on to the other girl for support and pulled her down with her. They both tumbled down the hill landing in a tangled heap.

"Hey are you guys okay?" Asuna called.

"Ugh, yeah." Makie replied. She had collapsed on top of Mero, and when she tried to push herself up with her hands she felt something soft under her palm.

"Ah." A soft voice moaned. Makie looked down and went bright red when she saw her hand cupped around Mero's left breast.

"S-Sorry Mero-chan." Her classmate made a face that might have been anger or annoyance. "It's surprisingly soft." Makie said involuntarily giving her breast a another squeeze."

"Mnnth."

Their other classmates reached the base of the hill just as Mero launched the pink haired girl into the air.

"Uwaaa!" Makie tumbled through the air before landing in a summersault and rolling to safety. "What was that for Mero-chan?!"

"Wow. Mero-san is quite strong isn't she?" Negi observed.

"Yeah you could say that." Asuna said scratching her cheek.

"Oooo, that was a great throw aru!" Ku shouted. "Come on, Mero let's have a match!" She raised her hands in a kung fu stance.

"No." She answered bluntly, but it was too late. Ku ran up to her and threw a punch. At such a close range it sailed straight through her magic barrier and hit her square in the jaw. Ku froze in place.

"Oops . . . " Clearly she hadn't been expecting to actually  _hit_ her. "Uh sorry Mer-Gwaah!" Before she could finish Mero thrust her open palm into her skull. "Ha ha, thats more like it aru!" She laughed happily exchanging blows with her classmate.

"Ten meal tickets on Mero!" Yuna Shouted.

"Twenty on Ku!" Makie shouted back!"

"No, please girls you mustn't fight!" Negi pleaded.

"Rather than 'fighting' this seems more like playground roughhousing."

"R-Really? He wondered.

Give it your all baka white! I've got fifteen meal tickets riding on you!" Misora cried.

"I told you not to call me tha- gah!" Distracted by her new nickname, Mero took another blow to the face.

**X**

"Ugh." Mero sighed after the party. "These fools are exhausting." She opened her book as she walked down the street. She had been reading up on the world tree, and what she discovered confirmed her suspisions. Veins of magical energy intersected and pooled together in that spot. Probably for centuries. If she could access it she would have a direct line to the Earth's mana supply. Once she entered the plaza she immediately spotted the tree. It was massive, easily towering over the surrounding buildings. There was no way an ordinary tree could grow that large without magic. In hindsight, she should have started her search here in the first place. She put her hand to the tree trunk and concentrated. "Yes." She felt the mana tingling her fingertips, spreading out into the tree and reaching down into the earth. All she had to do was prepare the right spells, and everything would be ready for their final operation in six months. But wait, something was wrong. She could sense the mana yes, but why was it so weak? Energy from all over the planet was flowing to this point. It should be overwhelming, but she barely felt anything. She began to panic. This couldn't be right, she had to be missing something! She frantically ran around the tree searching for the power.

"Oh, this is where you went Mero."

She turned toward the voice, and was approached by two of her classmates; the twins Fuka and Fumika Narutaki. If not for the fact that Fumika had her hair tied up in buns and Fuka had her's in pig tails, she doubted she would be able to tell them apart.

"Narutatki-sans, sorry to be rude but please leave. I am very busy right now."

"Busy?" Fuka snickered mischievously. "Could it be you know about the legend of the world tree?"

"Onee-chan don't tease her." Fumika scolded her older sister.

"Legend?" That caught her attention. "Please tell me!"

"Acording to legend," Fuka explained. "Anyone who confesses their love under the world tree will have their wish granted!"

"Haaa . . . ?" Mero tilted her head in disbelief. "But what about the magic?!"

"Yeah, some people say it's magic, but no one really knows."

"Onee-chan, that only applies during the cultural festival."

"Huh, what do you mean?"

"Oh, I guess you wouldn't know about it. There's a big culture festival in July. On the third day of the festival the tree glows, and that's when your wishes come true."

"It glows?"

"Yeah, something about luminescent moss I think."

Mero didn't believe that for a second. Maybe the magic power took time to accumulate. It would explain the glowing, and that amount of magic could certainly respond to strong desires.

"I see . . ." She stroked her chin.

"So, who are you planning on confessing to?" Fuka chuckled.

"Huh?"

"C'mon, don't deny it. The only reason people come here is because they're in love!"

"Onee-chan you're being rude!" Fumika said. Her older sister ignored her.

"So who's the lucky boy huh?"

"There really isn't one." She answered.

"Oh, it's a girl then?" She snickered.

"The two of you have given me a lot to think about. Now if you don't mind I'd like to be alone for a while."

"Yeah sure. Sorry for intruding. Come on onee-chan." Fumika said pushing her sister down the path.

Mero spent the rest of the afternoon casting empathetic spells to link her to the world tree. She bound herself to it so she could sense any fluctuations or increases in it's magic. Of course it was still as low as it had been when she first checked, but if what the Narutaki's had said was true that should change in time just in time for the eternal garden to activate. She had to contact cosmo entelechaia. It seems her job as still not over

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I know it's been awhile, but don't worry I'm still alive. I was really excited for this chapter. As you might have guessed I was a huge fan of power rangers as a kid. The original white ranger arc is still one of the coolest things in the series, so when I saw a chance to name a character "baka white" I just couldn't resist. Quick note about the food; mochi is a type of chewy japenese rice cake usually stuffed with red bean paste. Manju is pretty much the same thing but made from wheat flour instead of rice flour and steamed. Taiyaki is a fish shaped pancake that you see a lot in anime. The filling can be custard or chocolate but it's usually red bean paste. Pretty much all japenese dessert involves red bean paste in some way. That's all for now. The next chapter should be up sometime before the next ice age. See ya!


	12. Research and Relaxation

"It's done." Mero said as she put down her pen. It may have taken most of the morning, but she finally succeeded in transcribing the communication spell from her scroll into the magic index she'd taken from library island. While the scroll had to be sealed away and carried a certain level of risk whenever she used it, the index had an active connection to the mahou-net that was already transmitting through the school's magic barrier, so it should be virtually undetectable. Yuna was still asleep, now was the time to contact cosmo entelechaia. She activated the spell and the magic circle on the page displayed the image of the grave keeper's palace.

"Averruncus." Dynamis' voice said as he appeared on the page. "What is your current status? Have you completed the mission objective?"

"Dynamis?" She raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing there, where is the master?"`

"The Life maker is preparing the altar. You may speak with me. What is the problem?"

"I  _may?_  Do not mistake your place Dynamis. You may be the general of cosmo entelechaia, but you are  _not_ the life maker." Mero raised her voice slightly.

"And neither are you." He answered, without losing his temper. "Our master will be sequestered in the inner chamber for the next several days, and we all have our assignments. So have you completed the mission objective?" He repeated.

"I've located the target." She said reluctantly. "However, there's been a complication." She explained the issue with the world tree, and that they would likely not have enough mana to power the [rewrite] until right before the operation began.

"I see . . ." Dynamis stroked his chin. "I will relay this to the master, though there may not be anything we can do about it."

"Yes, do that." She said. "And general . . . . you'd do well to respect my station."

"Goodbye."

**X**

"Okay," Yue said. "Next paragraph." She was sitting at her desk in her room, surrounded by textbooks and furiously taking notes. Open at the center of the table was a thick book filled with latin inscriptions.

"Yue?" The door creaked open and Nodoka appeared in the doorway. "Are you in here? We haven't seen you all- what are you doing?"

"Nodoka!" Her friend jumped up and pulled her into the room. "What are you doing here? Did anyone follow you?" After making sure the hallway was empty she shut the door.

"I just came to see how you were doing. What is all this?"

Her eyes darted back and forth. She was clearly hesitant to share the information, but Nodoka was her best friend. She picked up the book from her desk and handed it to her.

"Look at this." Nodoka flipped through the book, running her fingers over the foreign words and geometric symbols.

"Where did you get this?"

"From library island."

"What?! But how-"

"I managed to salvage this one." Yue said. "It was in the piece of the duffel bag I held on to."

"T-That's amazing!" Nodoka cried. "What does it say? Is it the magic book?!" Yue shook her head.

"I don't know. It's in lain just like the others. I've been woking to translate it." She waved her hand toward all the language books scattered on her desk. "The most I've been able to piece together is some vague references to energy and spirits and elements."

"So that's what you've been doing all the time." She nodded. "But Mero-san can read latin. We can just ask her."

"No!" She said immediately. "We should keep this a secret for now, especially from Mero-san."

"But why?"

"Don't you find it strange? That entire time in library island, she seemed to know much more than she was letting on. Like with the golem, and there was that incident in the stairwell."

"Yue, what are you saying?"

"I-I don't know exactly. I still don't know how we were able to escape. I was just coming to, and I saw this light."

"Yeah, I saw it too. Whatever it was, it saved us."

"But at that moment I saw Mero-san. I looked like she was . . ." Yue shook her head. "Either way until we know what this is, we should keep it between us."

"Alright." Nodoka agreed. "I'll help you, after all it could be fun." She smiled. "What have you got so far?"

"Not much." Yue sighed. "I got all these books on modern latin, but they're only giving me bits and pieces. I think this may actually be a form of classical latin, but I can't be sure."

"I guess this might be to much for an amateur." Nodoka said. "It's not like either of us are language experts."

"Yeah," Yue's face suddenly lit up. "But we know someone who is."

**X**

"Don't be so nervous." Yue said as her friend fidgeted in the hallway next to her.

"B-But-" Nodoka stammered.

"Relax we're only asking our teacher for a bit of advice." She said as she knocked on the door. "No need to get so worked up." A moment later Konoka opened up the door and welcomed the guests.

"Oh, Yue and Nodoka, come on in!"

"Sorry for intruding." Nodoka said before entering.

"Ah Nodoka-san and Yue-san." Negi greeted them as they walked in. "What a pleasant surprise!"

"Good morning sensei. Uh s-sorry to bother you during break." Nodoka said.

"Not at all!" He smiled. "You could never be a bother Nodoka-san." She went completely red. "What can I do for you?" Yue stepped forward and reached into her bag.

"We were hoping you could help us with something." Just as she was went to pull out the book, they all heard another knock at the door. Konoka answered it again and Mero walked in.

"Hello- oh." She looked around. "I apologize, Am I interrupting?"

". . . No." Yue said before removing her hand from her bag.

"What brings you here Mero-san?" Negi asked.

"Nothing in particular." She answered. "I just wanted to talk to Asuna-san."

"Asuna? That might be difficult right now." Konoka said.

"Why? Where is she?" Konoka and Negi looked at each other, then they both pointed at the bunk bed simultaneously.

"There."

"She's still sleeping?" Nodoka said. "It's almost noon."

"Wake up Asuna, we have guests." Konoka gently shook her roommate.

"Huh? What time is it?" Asuna began rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"You shouldn't sleep all day just because it spring break." Yue said.

"Give me a break Yue-chan." She groaned. "I was already up early this morning for my paper route."

"Paper route?" Mero wondered.

"Asuna-san, Asuna-san!" Nodoka pointed frantically trying to warn her of something.

"Huh what is it?" She looked down and realized her pajamas had apparently popped open in her sleep, baring her naked breasts for her audience. "Kyaa!" She quickly crossed her arms over her chest, and Negi averted her eyes while she became decent again. Mero looked at her own chest, then back at Asuna.

_I suppose it would be inconvenient to have such large breasts._  She thought.

"Alright I'm up now!" Asuna said finally hopping down from the bed. "But I'm not doing anything until I get some breakfast."

"Okay, I'll whip something up." Konoka tied an apron around her waist, before turing to her visitors. "Have you guys eaten yet?" Soon the six of them were gathered around the small room sharing a home cooked meal.

"Konoka-san's home cooking is delicious as always." Negi said.

"Oh, Negi-kun!" She blushed.

"Indeed." Mero said taking a bite of her omelet. "These are exquisite."

"So hey, what did you want to talk about anyway?" Asuna turned to Mero.

"It's about what happened in library island." Asuna blushed at the memory of carying the girl in her arms.

"Oh, uh that? Uh d-don't mention it. We don't have to talk about it." She stammered.

"No, you were truly amazing back then." Asuna somehow managed to blush even more.

"Eh? What's going on?" Konoka asked. "Did something happen in library island?"

"Nothing at al!" She cried. Negi's smile melted away.

"I still don't like that you all went there. If something happened to any of you I don't know what I would have done."

"Sensei . . ." Nodoka met his gaze.

"We weren't in any danger." Mero said confidently. "I had the whole situation under control."

"Really?" Asuna teased. "It looked like you were in a pretty bad spot before the rest of us showed up."

"Hmph." Mero frowned. "I would have been fine. I seem to recall you needing my help in the stairwell."

"Grr, you mean right before I had to save your butt from-" Her retort was cut off by a sudden fit of laugher from Nodoka.

"What are you laughing at Nodoka-san?" Mero asked.

"Im sorry Mero-san." She wiped her eyes and composed herself. "I just couldn't help thinking, 'wow these two are really great friends'." Both girls looked at each other and blinked.

"What are you talking about?" They said simultaneously.

"Nothing." Nodoka giggled.

**X**

"Well that was a waste of time." Yue said as she returned to her room. In the end they had just spent the entire afternoon talking. It wasn't a bad way to spend the day, at the very least Nodoka seemed to be getting along with Negi sensei, so perhaps it wasn't a total waste, but she never got to discuss the book with him. She was still hesitant to let Mero know about it. She was definitely hiding something, and until Yue knew what, she couldn't completely trust her. That evening she went back to work translating the book. She worked through the night, checking and double checking her facts. In the end it was clear to her what she had. She still had a lot of work to do before she could decipher all the contents accurately, and it would be almost impossible to verify it's authenticity, but she couldn't deny it longer. This was a spell book.

**X**

"Aurgh! This is no good at all!" Yuna cried.

"What's wrong Yuna-san?" Mero asked.

"Everything! It's spring break, our long awaited vacation! No, it's the springtime of our youth!"

"What does that mean?"

"It means we should be out living our lives, taking the world by storm! Not cooped up inside a dorm room reading manga and eating snacks all day!" Mero looked confused.

"But you  _did_ stay in the dorm room and eat snacks all day."

"Exactly! Don't you feel your youth is being wasted?"

"No." She answered immediately.

"Of course you do!" She jumped to her feet. "Well no more! Tomorrow were going full speed ahead into our precious youth!"

Mero sighed. This mission just kept getting more ridiculous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy holidays! Okay I didn't actually plan to post this on Christmas, but this chapter gave me way more trouble than it had any right to. Of course I had a general idea for where this story was going to go, but I didn't plan out anything for the spring break. It took me forever to come up with something to put here. I'm sorry about the long wait, but trust me it was just as frustrating for me as it was for you. But now that we're over that hurdle it should flow a lot more smoothly from now on. I've got a ton of ideas that I cant wait to show you. Hope you look forward to it.


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